Mymensingh Division

Mymensingh Division represents Bangladesh's agricultural heartland—carved out of Dhaka Division in 2015 to create a distinct administrative unit for a region where farming rather than manufacturing defines the economy. The Brahmaputra River (locally called Jamuna) shapes everything: annual flooding deposits fertile sediment that makes rice cultivation possible, but also displaces communities when waters rise too high. Mymensingh city hosts Bangladesh Agricultural University, the country's oldest agricultural research institution (founded 1961), creating a knowledge infrastructure that supports the division's farming identity. The Haor wetlands of Netrokona and adjacent areas form a distinctive ecosystem—seasonally flooded depressions that support fishing during high water and rice cultivation when waters recede. This cyclical adaptation to flooding represents indigenous knowledge that development planners increasingly recognize as more sustainable than fighting water with embankments. The division's population of 12 million lives at lower density than the Dhaka megacity next door, but migration flows toward the capital drain young workers. The Garo people of the northern hill areas maintain cultural identities distinct from Bengali majority, adding ethnic complexity to a region often treated as homogeneous. The August 2024 political transition disrupted agricultural supply chains, with fertilizer and seed distribution affected during critical planting seasons. By 2026, Mymensingh's trajectory depends on whether agricultural modernization can provide livelihoods that compete with Dhaka's factory wages, or whether the division continues serving primarily as a labor reserve for the capital's industries.