Poverty,resource distribution and security: The impact of new agricultural technology in rural Bangladesh

Recent studies have examined the relationship between agrarian change and rural poverty in LDCs concentrating on either exchange or non‐exchange income. Neither approach employed independently is, however, adequate. Bangladeshi evidence is presented of growing concentration of control of land, of components of new agricultural technology and of ancillary resources. Increasing incidence of landlessness and near landlessness has resulted in greater dependence on wage employment for subsistence by the rural poor. It is argued that the non‐exchange component of income is important in slack periods and assumes even greater significance in abnormal years when both real wage and employment fall sharply. With rapid population growth, depletion of natural resources and greater penetration of technological and market forces, the cushioning effect of access to natural resources, in adverse circumstances, on the rural poor has become more limited and their income security has been undermined.