According to FAO, currently about 45% population in Bangladesh are below the poverty level while around 20% are hardcore poor. The population is predominantly rural, with about 85 per cent of its 135 million people living in rural areas. For their livelihoods rural people depend mainly on land, which is both fertile and extremely vulnerable. Most of the country is made up of flood plain, and while the alluvial soil provides good arable land, large areas are at risk because of frequent floods and cyclones, which take lives and destroy crops, livestock and property.

Bangladesh is one of the world s most densely populated countries with 150 million people, 49 percent of whom live below the national poverty line. In addition, child malnutrition rate of 48 percent is the second highest in the world, a condition that is tied to the low social status of women in Bangladeshi society. About 20 per cent of rural households live in extreme poverty. Chronically poor people suffer persistent food insecurity, own no cultivable land or assets, are often illiterate and may also suffer from serious illnesses or disabilities. Another 29 per cent of the rural population is considered moderately poor. They may own a small plot of land and some livestock, but while they generally have enough to eat, their diets lack protein and other nutritional elements. This segment of the rural population is at risk of sliding deeper into poverty as a result of health problems or natural disasters. Injury or crop failure caused by unexpected and severe weather conditions frequently ruins the livelihoods and the hopes of many Bangladeshis.

Small-scale fanners may subsist at either of these levels of poverty. Their livelihoods are precarious, because of the seasonal nature of farm income and

natural disasters such as floods and drought may periodically destroy their crops and livestock.

Women are among the poorest of the rural poor, especially when they are the sole heads of their households, such as widows or wives of men who have migrated in search of employment. They suffer discrimination because of their gender, they have scarce income and their nutritional intake is often inadequate.

Poverty reduction is the central challenge for Bangladesh. The integrated activities of the government, NGOs and people can alienate poverty' and then we may achieve our desirable digital Bangladesh.

Md. Nur-e-Alam Siddike

Faculty of Agriculture

Hajee Danesh Science & Technology University

Dinajpur