Creative destruction: Analysing flood and flood control in Bangladesh

This article explores the notion of 'creative destruction' in analyzing the effects of riverine floods on agricultural productivity in Bangladesh. It examines the monthly data on crop productivity for 1978-2000 in Bangladesh, to argue that, while severe flooding may cause decline in agricultural yield rate in disaster months, they may also provide open-access irrigational input that lead to significant increases in post-flood productivity. A more nuanced notion of 'creative destruction' is then applied to examine how structural measures of flood control have transformed agricultural practices in the country over the long run. The economic transformation that followed these changes, however, had unequal consequences for the communities. A majority of the stakeholders faced new kinds of risks that emerged with the new and unexpected changes in livelihood patterns and in disaster archetypes.