Technology, entitlement and freedom of choice

Technology adoption in agricultural practices could be one of the keys to raising income, other things being equal, and the rise in income could alter the matrix of choices faced by the households or consumers. First, technology for the very poor enables entitlement by increasing supply of food (for the poor, production itself is entitlement as they consume what they produce) and then enhancement of entitlement could lead to a variety of choices that the poor could hardly think of in the pre-technology state. To this effect, I shall cite a few instances from field visits in one of the villages of Bangladesh.

The village
Possibly 70 km north of Dhaka lies Sreepur village. In conventional perspective, it should be dubbed as a developed village with pucca roads passing by it and the village having access to electricity. I am told that the village falls under Sreepur pourashava (municipality) and therefore the village has access to all the facilities that a pourashava should provide. The wage rate in the village ranges from Tk.100 to 120 per day in busy season implying the scarcity of labour due, perhaps, to the expansion of non-farm activities. Any way, I met with about 20 male and female farmers who are poor in the scale of land endowments.

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Productive farmers
The set of farmers I met were trained on Seed Health Improvement. As could be gathered, simple techniques on growing and preservation were taught by BRRI under the aegis of IRRI. The tools used were not of tall order, nor the cost of growing seeds compounded for that matter. Only the knowledge about how to grow, dry, preserve and use seedlings were the main essence of the training. Both males and females of the sample households had the access to the training. From the views of the farmers themselves, it appeared to me that the training on seed health turned their fortunes remarkably. Just four years back, most of them could meet rice needs from own farms only for six months. The rest used to be managed either by borrowing or by pulling rickshaw/vans or selling assets.

A tenant and a training
Allow me to introduce Abdul Kader who lost his father at childhood and the grand father deprived him of the due share from inheritance. He has no education. A born landless Abdul Kader has been striving hard for decades to feed seven members through renting in land. Of course, his eldest son contributes Tk.3000 a month working as a carpenter. But that is a peanut as his household requires 3-3.5kg/day of rice just to skip skeletons. In the justly finished Boro season, he cultivated four bighas (1 bigha=35 decimals) of land and in the last Aman season, six bighas. To repeat, all his cultivable lands were rented in to surrender of 50 per cent of the output to the owner. Like many others, Abdul Kader is a pure tenant in Sreepur village.

Kader informed me that he reaped home a harvest of 20 maunds/bigha of paddy from producing BR-28. He and his wife made full use of the training on good quality seed. In the absence of such training, that is, when they towed the traditional path of preservation of seeds, the yield was 17 maunds/bigha. In the aman season, he produced BR-11 to take home 16 maunds/bigha against 12 maunds/bigha in the days driven by devastations all around. In those days, Kader and his wife used to keep seeds in a sack only to see that seeds were spoiled due to air contamination. On many occasions, their seed beds were damaged putting them on the pan of pains. They were heavily indebted to village mohajans, neighbours as the loaned money could not be utilised properly.

Fatema Begum, wife of Kader answered most of my queries. "For last four years, we did not borrow money for cultivation. Before that, we borrowed money from mohajans, say Tk 1000, to pay Tk.100 per month additional". During the last boro season, they sold seedlings worth Tk.3000, before that, Tk.1400 and before that Tk.1200. The seedlings are bought not only by neighbours when they fail to grow but also by villagers from far and wide.

Deficit to surplus
However, in the last boro season, he got 80 maunds from four bighas and after surrendering half of the output, brought back home 40 maunds of paddy. There is also increased yield from BR-11 and together they got 86 maunds of paddy in one year. After meeting household needs, this tenant family emerges as a surplus rice producer. A part of the excess is sent to the market to buy saree for Fatema or to pay tuition fees for the daughter. Fatema, choked with emotions, narrated to me that she could not provide education to her son due to poverty and never ever she could wear two sarees. "I was a maid in some body's house just three to four years back. Managing food for the family forced me to be a maid and my husband a ‘muni' (year-long labour in a household). Food shortage stays away these days due to the hard work we put in the fields. “Ekkhuni cholen amar barit, bish thrish mon dhan achei" (just now accompany me to my house. Always there is 20-30 maunds of paddy).

Choice set
What is the basic difference in the Kader family as it moved to the present state over the years. Fatema Begum replies supported by her husband and another pure tenant, Abdul Malek: Sir "I was a maid servant, now a farmer".

Second, "Now, if we, we can eat fish twice a week, earlier no way despite wont desire".

Third, "In the past, there was scarcity of rented land as crops failed and we the poor could hardly bear the costs of raising output. Now seeing the yield rate from qood quality seeds, owners are running after us and asking us to till their land. We are thinking whether to rent in more or not".

The participants in our discussions, mostly poor, told me that the increased yield and the food security that resulted reduced, to an extent, their dependence even on NGO. According to them, as of now they can save at least Tk.300 per bigha from the economic use of seeds, seedlings and very little use of insecticides. This has been supported by judicious use of fertilizers. And all of these developments came from the training on seed health. The cash cost needed to cultivate one bigha with BR-28 comes close to Tk.300 implying that there is no need of searching for credit sources.

Fatema Begum and Salma Khatun, both wives of pure tenants always have smiles while talking. They visit fields occasionally just to see for themselves the output of their hard labour put in seed health activity. "Wives of rich farmers do not visit fields as they need not. We are poor. We must visit fields". I was told that their husbands now always discuss about seeds and agricultural practices with them. They are more discussed now than before. They have moved from food deficit to food surplus households.

Seed and Eid
Why do you laugh so much while talking? I asked them seeing their happy faces. "Char bosor age aile ai hashi dehtenna sir. Goto char bosor dhaira eid eid vab" (You would not have noticed a smile on our faces had you visited us four years back. For the last four years (after training and good yield) we always wear a festive look).

From corner to centre
As we left Sreepur, I started recollecting what Fatema and Salma informed about their development over the years. Their production and food entitlement went up and at the same time, their set of choice expanded. Within a span of four years, they moved away from a situation of 'corner' solution to a position of 'tangency' solution. They can now, if they wish, buy rice as well as non-rice commodities. A training that engaged both men and women helped raise output substantially to put the poorest of the poor in a village on an even keel with others. To me, some developments as espoused by Amartaya Sen seem to have happened in that village. The government and the donors need only expand the scale so that the households of Fatemas and Salmas reach doorsteps of development.

Abdul Bayes is a Professor of Economics at Jahangirnagar University.