Opinion
Overcoming problems in agriculture
It is undeniable that Bangladesh has made remarkable progress in agriculture specially in cereal production in post independent era. Population of Bangladesh was 75 million just after the liberation and production of food was 10 million tons with a deficit of 3 million tons. Nowadays the population is double touching the tune of 150 million and food production is about 30 million tons. Apparently there is no deficiency. It is a great achievement! The half-fed farmers can claim the lion's share of this success. But beside the successes there are some identified and conventional problems in the agriculture sector of Bangladesh. Some new and strategic problems in agriculture are emerging parallely alongside the conventional and century old ones. It is a matter of regret that these new problem fail to attract the attention of the policy makers.
Use of appropriate technology can play an excellent role in the extension of agriculture in Bangladesh. Use of drum-seeder is gaining popularity as an appropriate technology in different countries including Vietnam. Drum-seeder was first innovated at the International Rice Research Institute in Manila, the capital of the Philippines. Production of rice has increased enormously in Vietnam using drum-seeder successfully. There is a huge potentiality of producing more rice in Bangladesh too using drum-seeder. Production of rice in Bangladesh can at least be increased by 2.5-3 million tons valued at Taka 20,000 million if successful use of drum-seeder is ensured keeping other factors unchanged. Again Taka 20,000 million can be fetched by saving Taka 2000 per hectare.
Thus Bangladesh can accrue Taka 40,000 million yearly from internal source ensuring use of drum-seeder. For this, all the rice farming of Bangladesh should be brought under drum-seeder cultivation at the earliest possible time. At the same time use of urea can be controlled by using leaf-colour-chart and gooti urea. Then demand of urea could be met by the production of the urea factories of the country. There will be no need of importing urea from abroad rather it could be exported to some extent.
It is customary that transplanted Aman season is considered as the main rice producing season of Bangladesh. But it is being noticed in the last few years that Boro season is turning into the main rice producing season. Transplanted Aman season is stepping down to 2nd rice producing season. But this Boro occupying the main season defeating Aman is rather deadly. Priority for Boro is because of the corresponding shrinkage of land under pulses, oilseeds, wheat and winter vegetable. Attention should be given for increasing the land under cultivation of pulses, oilseeds, wheat and winter vegetable for more production by stopping this terrible trend. Transplanted Aman season should be reinstated to its main position. Transplanted Aman is more or less rain-fed and there is no need of supplementary irrigation.
Gradually decreasing cultivable land is yet another burning problem for agriculture in Bangladesh. 212 hectare land per day or 77,380 hectare per year is being lost which is approximately 1 percent of the total cultivable land in Bangladesh. All the cultivable land will be lost by the year 2092 at this rate. Appropriate measure should be taken at once for not losing any further patch of cultivable land. Steps should be taken to construct multi-storied houses in the villages too. Perhaps there is no alternative to multi-storied houses in the villages, though it may not apparently seem realistic in the background of the prevailing socio-economic condition of rural Bangladesh. Experts calculate that 1.2 million hectare three-crop cultivable land can be recovered by constructing multi-storied houses in the villages.
Poverty reduction is yet another incarnate problem of Bangladesh. To speak the truth, agricultural development and poverty reduction are supplementary to one another. Permanent poverty reduction is indeed possible by distributing all the khas land, land recovered through constructing multi-storied houses in the villages and land recovered through implementing land ceiling of Bangabandhu. By these measures poverty reduction will attain 100 percent success in the year 2008 instead of 50 percent target of the Millennium Development Goal (by the year 2015) as stated in the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper. Food security can be ensured by eradicating poverty for good.
Another problem may emerge due to the increasing production of rice in 2 to 3 years. Total production is likely to surpass the requirement due to the increasing use of hybrid seeds. Then there will be a crisis of storage facilities and packaging gunny bags. Policy makers should be cautious about this ensuing problem right now.
Flood is another yearly problem. Bangladesh must suffer the havoc due to its geo-physical position and flowing of three great rivers over its territory. So in Bangladesh development plans should not be made on the concept of "flood control" rather the concept of "controlled flood" should be given preference in implementing future infrastructural development plans. Due to the "controlled flood" 2500 million tons of silt may be deposited evenly on the cultivable land all over Bangladesh which will play an important role in increasing food production.
It is noteworthy to mention about the recent and amazing development of agriculture in the Indian state of West Bengal. During the period of 1980's West Bengal was one of the backward states of India. Situation started changing after taking necessary radical land reform and agricultural development by the left front government. Political stability returned to the state and wind of development started blowing in economic arena. Due to this the left front government in West Bengal is passing its glorious 30 years in power. West Bengal now is one of the advanced states of India. The radical land reform and agricultural development could be an ideal model for Bangladesh too.
It is a matter of regret that even after 36 years of independence, the country has no mention worthy agriculture policy though Bangladesh is dependent on agriculture. During the Awami League government a very simple 35-page agriculture policy was adopted which too has never been followed in its true sense. Bangladesh needs a comprehensive agriculture policy.
For ensuring the food security in the coming days for the ever increasing population the policy makers should pay attention to the emerging problems in agriculture. If agriculture in Bangladesh is made dynamic by following a comprehensive agriculture policy, the dream of a prosperous nation will come true by the year 2021 when it will celebrate its golden jubilee of independence.
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