Winning over woes

Village and victims

Today, in this column, I would talk about one such village that was once victim of such calamities. The village is called Kismot Fultola under Batighata Thana lying15 km south of Khulna city. It's a very big village standing on the bank of the river Shoilmari. There are, reportedly, 400 households and about 3000 people living in the village. About 95 per cent of inhabitants of that village are Hindus. There are good roads to connecting the village with district and Thana sadar and a number of NGOs are also reported to be working in the village. But neither infrastructure nor credit institutions could keep the villagers on an even keel. Why?

Tap here to add The Daily Star as a trusted source

Villagers told me that back in the 1970s, they used to grow two rice crops during aman and boro seasons and thus could easily meet food needs of the households. But with the construction of Farakka barrage, there started dearth of water in the dry season. Saline water intended fields and killed crops. Soon the villagers had to forgo the boro season crop and bank on only aman crop. And that was also not with right earnest for a good earning. Local varieties were cultivated and villagers were not at all aware that Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) discovered high yielding varieties. They used to plant the varieties at the beginning of the season and harvest the same at the end without any care shown in between. Output was low, income was low and food security of households was at a stake.

Pillars for poor

Meantime, researchers rose to the occasion with special attention to the village. They developed a project called "Coastal Water Management Project" with a view to helping villagers facing the twin villains: salinity and traditional varieties. The project is promoted by the Poverty Elimination through Rice Research Assistance (PETRRA) project of IRRI and implemented by a syndicate of agencies. There are two NGOs -- Health, Education and Economic Development (HEED) and Proshika, two governmental organisations -- the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute ( BRRI) and Directorate of Agricultural Extension Services (DAE) along with Khulna University to support the project.

As I was told, the project stands on two pillars to help poor farmers. First, to preserve the rain water in a canal flowing inside the village named Katakhali from Kazibacha river (the Water Development Board has an embankment with sluice gates and flush points). The period from August to mid February is suitable for sweet water and from end February to June comes saline water. Seedbed starts from first week of December to be sown in January and so for these two and half months, water comes from the river. It is for another month that the reservoir would help. For the last two-boro seasons, farmers were supplied with preserved water to grow high yielding varieties for the first time since 1970s. Second, farmers also needed to be trained on the economics of growing high yielding varieties in the aman season to reap home a better harvest. Thus the project takes care of disseminating knowledge about optimum allocation of land resources both from vertical and horizontal angles.

Crop museum

I was taken to the fields that were lying close to the canal that, reportedly, preserves water. This is now the aman season and I observed 16 varieties of aman being experimented in the field. The organisers call it crop museum. On the one hand, there are plots supporting the sowing system developed by BRRI and plots with traditional system of farmers, on the other. The museum has BR 10, 11, 23, BRRIdhan 30, 31, 33, 34, 37, 38 etc. Most of the varieties were unknown to the farmers in the past and so were the techniques of growing crops in a cost-effective manner. The lands used to remain fallow in winter sometimes, of course, tilled for "tils" tagged with the whims of the nature.

I could learn that the people of this village have traditionally been lazy and lukewarm to the advancement of their luck. It was, of course, by force and not by choice. First, the marginal costs of improving the fortune were higher than the fortunes fetched. Second, the villagers were not aware about the incremental gains that could be fetched from new system of farming. Now -- thanks to the agencies engaged in helping them -- they know that growing high yielding varieties demand a lot of sweats to produce the sweet crops they need for meeting the food security of the households. The additional revenue from additional costs is estimated to be about two times higher. However, the experiment is at its nascent stage passing one season only. But I was told that during the aman season, yield rate doubled from say 15 maunds/bigha to 30 maunds/bigha. The boro output is expected to be bountiful.

Uptake and intake

Suhbash, Shukumar, Biren, Debendranath, Dulal are all farmers facing me under the shade of a tree on the bank of the canal. I could reveal that recently, in their fight against food insecurity, three things emerged as important. First, they are organised to put up a collective action against the villain -- salinity -- through the use of water from reservoir during the dry season. That they would be able to come back to the "good old days" by growing HYV rice, was just a dream that came true. Second, that there existed HYV for aman season was never near to their knowledge. And third, knowledge about line sowing, one or two plants instead of many, and the type of care needed to get better yield were provided by the training given by the institutions that I mentioned before. There is now a great demand for the techniques that they use from villages far and near. The "neighborhood effect" works well. "We all are deficit farmers meeting 6-7 months' food need from own sources. But within next two to three years -- provided things run as they are -- we shall become surplus farmers. We shall have more meals and more for market", the apparently happy farmers told me.

But what would happen if subsidy on seeds, water and fertilizer are no more available to you as it has been on the eve of the project?" I asked them. "Just teach us things that we do not know and we shall see our own ways. We want cooperation not help ( Amra Shohojogita chai, shaijja chaina).

As I traveled towards south to Gangarampur village, I was shown some of the canals that could be so used to help preserve water for dry season rice. Unfortunately, no attempts worth checking the salt was made so far. Moshe Dayan -- the former Israeli Prime Minister-- is reported to have said once that for maintaining peace, you need to talk to foes not friends. I think that to win over the woes like salinity and traditional practices, we need to manage unfriendly canals in coastal zones not deal heavily with "friendly" ecosystems.

Rice diversity

The Coastal Development Partnership (CDP), Protiva, Pajia, Lokos and other organisations are striving hard to introduce to farmers the varieties of rice suitable for coastal zones. When I visited villages like Kanchanpur and Gangarampur, I saw how local level varieties are being adapted to the needs of the coastal characters. BRRI has developed various varieties of rice that would be suitable for saline and semi-saline environment. There are many places in coastal areas where irrigation facilities are forlorn hopes due to salinity and lower water tables. Maximisation of returns from aman and aus seasons -- through the development of tolerant varieties -- would go a long way in meeting the coastal constraints.

To this effect, the male and female farmers are taught about the techniques of cultivation, the preservation of seeds in right environment and the value of different varieties that were lost almost in wilderness. The lost heritage of coastal areas is being attempted to be regained under the aegis of rice diversity in coastal areas.

Scientists and farmers

Appreciably, BRRI developed different varieties of crops to suit saline conditions. But the fix seems to lie elsewhere: farmers are not aware of the new varieties that are being developed. It is hard to believe that Bangladeshi farmers are in the dark about such developments taking place within their country. The extension network is too weak to call for a new look at the whole scenario. The government should seriously think of integrating the NGOs in the dissemination of knowledge to farmers. The faster it is done, the better it is.

Abdul Bayes is Professor of Economics at Jahangirnagar University