https://www.dw.com/en/is-bangladesh-heading-toward-a-sri-lan… The Russia-Ukraine war, which began at the end of February, has compounded the inflationary pressure. Bangladesh has been particularly vulnerable as the country imports significant amounts of goods like cooking oil, wheat and other food items, as well as fuel.
Bangladesh recently became the third country in South Asia, after Pakistan and Sri Lanka, to seek financial support from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) this year. Dhaka is now reportedly also seeking assistance from the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank to overcome the economic challenges it has been facing in recent months.
“Government expenditure is doubling. Shortly, all the earnings will be spent to meet the expense of imports, pensions and all other expenditures. The whole development budget will have to be borrowed,” he said.
As an aside, I highly recommend (gets the rarefied AW 5-stars) 50th Anniversary edition of All Things Must Pass. The remix is a huge improvement without all that Phil Spector Wall of Sound crapola.
" As an aside, I highly recommend (gets the rarefied AW 5-stars) 50th Anniversary edition of All Things Must Pass. The remix is a huge improvement without all that Phil Spector Wall of Sound crapola.
Bangladesh is one of the places that benefited from the Green Revolution of about 50 years ago.
More productive strains of wheat were developed (the old fashioned way–crossbreeding). They greatly increased yield. And fed many more people. But the technology requires much fertilizer. Nitrogen fertilizer comes from natural gas and costs are way up.
More productive strains of wheat were developed (the old fashioned way–crossbreeding). They greatly increased yield. And fed many more people. But the technology requires much fertilizer. Nitrogen fertilizer comes from natural gas and costs are way up.
With Bangladesh the story is rice (75%) but, that said, rice need fertilizer as well (as Sri Lanka discovered).
Nitrogen fertilizer comes from natural gas and costs are way up. https://www.daily-bangladesh.com/english/country/54242 Gazipur City Corporation is set to make compost manure by processing it from human feces for the first time in the country.
Vietnam back in the day used human poo also. Dunno if that still is the case.
Vietnam back in the day used human poo also. Dunno if that still is the case.
Night soil!
Night soil is a historically used euphemism for human excreta collected from cesspools, privies, pail closets, pit latrines, privy middens, septic tanks, etc. This material was removed from the immediate area, usually at night, by workers employed in this trade. Sometimes it could be transported out of towns and sold on as a fertilizer.
Manure from livestock has been used for centuries. They say the ratio of livestock/pasture to grain was important as the manure was the only fertilizer. Crop rotation was an important part of this.
Modern agriculture plants the same crop over and over on the same land. That requires more fertilizer.
I wonder if manure can give the same yields as fertilizer. This is an important issue. I suspect no. There is a yield penalty for reliance on manure alone.
