TREND ANALYSIS OF LAND UTILIZATION IN BANGLADESH

Due to alterations in physiographic and social-economic conditions, climatic changes, adaptation and population growth, the land utilization of Bangladesh is changing very rapidly. Small farms and landless household constitute about 80% of total area households, the majority of whom depend on agriculture for their livelihood. It is obvious that total agriculture land over the periods in the past has not increased although population has increased significantly [12]. Bangladesh is a small country but it bears a huge population, resulting in a very high density of population and very high intensity of land and resource use. Based on secondary data of Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, an attempt has been made in this paper to evaluate the changes in land use pattern during the period of 1990 to 2015. Absolute utilization of land for different purposes during this period as well as trend values and growth rates were estimated. Trend analysis and exponential growth rate showed that forest area significantly increased by 35.93% and 0.3% per annum and land not available for cultivation is significantly decreased by 4.49% and 0.04%per annum respectively. Result also show that cultivate waste is significantly decreased at the rate of 1.1% per annum. On the other hand, a current fallow is decreased by 0.2% per annum. The trend values was found statistically significant for land use in forest and cultivate waste.