Beneath The Surface
When credit is not the core concern
WE drove down the road running through the hearts of villages to meet a few poor people who had graduated from the shackles of poverty. It was not through credit from NGOs or from government dole -- as some would like to argue -- but from technology adoption, social capital formation, and group solidarity.
On both sides of the road, fields of aman paddy reminded me of Tagore's poem: Dhono dhanney pushpe vora, amar ai boshundhara … On our way, we met Shamsher (60) of Debipur village under Tanor upazilla in Rajshahi district. I was told that he has become the "talk of the area" by escaping from perilous poverty within a span of five years or so.
Not many years back, illiterate Shamsher was working as a day labourer on other people's land at Tk.30 a day. Banks and NGOs ignored him as he was too poor to be creditworthy. His monthly income never exceeded Tk.1,500, but the number of mouths to feed increased manifold. Thus, it is no wonder that the feeble income failed to provide food security: household members starved for half the year, with all the indignities that follow from poverty. However, while working on others' land, Shamsher got interested in nurseries and gathered some knowledge from a private source.
Then came a project called Food Security for Sustainable Household Livelihood (FoSHoL). This project is funded by the EC and coordinated by IRRI to help the resource-poor households in rural areas. These households are trained by Care, Bangladesh, on a number of fronts: technology adoption for crops and livestock/poultry, service provisioning, savings mobilisation and establishing a network with local officials and extension offices. Shamsher was lucky to be on board, and soon he became a resource farmer. Allow me to call him a village "public good" as he disseminates his accumulated knowledge to a wider audience. Farmers from far and wide come to him to seek advice on crop related activities. Government agencies also value his hard work. The credit constraint that he faced is now eased with borrowing funds available from group savings. About 30 landless families of the village formed a group to save and lend money among themselves. FoSHoL project encouraged group formation. Shamsher and others pay interest of 10% on borrowed money from collective deposits. On average, he took Tk.4,000 per season and thus saved himself from the fire of credit constraint.
He now grows seedlings and vegetables -- chili, tomato, brinjol, cabbage, onion, etc. Besides, he mortgaged-in roughly one acre of land to cultivate food crops just a few years back with the profits he generated from the nursery. The household's rice security is reached through introduction of modern varieties of rice (BR 28 and 29), line sowing, and seed preservation -- all that he learnt from FoSHoL project. Shamsher's monthly income now hovers around Tk.10,000-15,000 and all the members of the household can take three satisfactory meals throughout the year. He has a mobile phone and plans to renovate his house very soon.
Going further down, we met Mamun (40) at Chuni Para village. Maumun lost his father at the age of six months. His grandparents raised him, and possibly too much love and affection made him unproductive. Married and the father of two children, Mamun groaned under extreme poverty even in 2006. His wife told us that they had to pass day after day with puffed rice taken in the morning. None would lend money to them as her husband could not be trusted because he led a bohemian life.
Against this bleak background, Mamun's wife forced him to join FoSHoL and get some knowledge on how to eke out a living from meager resource endowments. Mamun complied this time and, after attending few learning sessions, he became a resource farmer. He specialised in rice seed production. Both husband and wife rear chicks and ducks with a hefty income coming from this. One-third of the total income is now contributed by his wife.
Villagers now know him as "Chicken Mamun," Mamun told us, because of his involvement with chicks and ducks. The knowledge he gained and the technology he adopted are now followed by villagers and outsiders. He also rears livestock. Mamun rented-in land to ensure food security through growing modern varieties, line sowing, and scientific preservation of seeds. He now gets an additional 8-10 maunds of paddy from the same amount of land, mostly due to improvement in management and technology adoption. Mamun's family now gets three satisfactory meals throughout the year -- an achievement hardly dreamt of a few years back.
No less substantive is the story of Ismail (35) of Barendra village. He was a tenant and grappled hard with managing food for a family of 10. About 30 households have saved, on average, Tk.5,000 each, totaling one and a half lakhs. Each member can borrow from their "informal bank" during crop season.
For example, during the last boro season, each of the landless households borrowed Tk. 4,000-5,000 from the group fund. They returned the money after the crop was harvested. Ismail's training on vegetables from FoSHoL paid him rich dividends; last year he sold brinjol worth Tk.165,000 and his net profit was Tk.140,000. Had there been no such knowledge from the training, the profit would go down by half. Ismail also has a nursery, and has rented-in one acre of land for growing crops. He is also the president of the bazaar committee of the newly established bazaar near the village. Ismail has got easy access to extension officers of the upazilla. Once debt-ridden, Ismail is now a surplus farmer and a village extension activist, and his household faced no food insecurity during the last food crisis.
The three case studies mentioned above point to three pillars for poverty reduction and food security: modern technology in rice production, easy access to credit, and collective efforts of the poor for their own uplift. Credit is necessary but collective effort is a must. What case studies complained about is not credit but access to new knowledge and extension that raise productivity of their land and labour. The FoSHoL seemingly gave these groups some harvest in terms food security, social cohesion and esteem in the village.
Abdul Bays is a Professor of Economics at Jahangirnagar University. E-mail:
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.
Comments