The Vision of Agri-Environmental Sustainability in Bangladesh: How the Policies, Strategies and Institutions Delivered?

Abstract

Agriculture and environmental change are tightly interconnected in ways that require active roles of policy, strategy, and institution for the promotion of sustainable agriculture development. To explore this issue, this study addresses two questions 1) to what extent is environmental integration reflected in policies, strategies, and institutions? And 2) how do these policies, strategies, and institutions turn ambitions into actions? By adopting two frameworks developed by the OECD and the European Environment Agency as well as critically reviewing policy documents and conducting the key informant interviews, the results revealed that most of the policies and strategies integrated the environmental issue and had stipulated action plans and governance structure for implementation. The results also found that institutions marginally integrated the environmental concerns and faced several problems that hindered turning ambitions into actions. Overall, although policy instruments were good, the vision of sustainability was in difficulty to actualizing into action due to weak institutional setup. This study highlights the interdependence between the dimensions of policy implement tation process. Policy implications should emphasize enhancing institutional capacity, revamping agricultural advisory services, and empowering Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC) to translate the vision of agri-environmental sustainability into action.