Beneath The Surface
Penny saved, pound gained
FOR the people of Kurigram, the month of Kartik (November) had been a curse since time immemorial. In fact, larger part of greater Rongpur district is occasionally caught by the curse of mora kartik. It is a period when the gap between mouths and meals shoots up following shortage of labour demand and output supply.
Again, it is the time when just to meet a day's meal, households are forced to sell assets and advance labour, borrow money at exorbitant rate of interest from mohajons. Many of the earning members also migrate to other places. Admittedly, over the years, various projects and programs from government as well as from donors have been advanced to mitigate the menace from monga. But I shall pickup today a relatively innovative and, hopefully, sustainable one.
Actionaid Bangladesh had been working with some monga-prone households for last few years. Its programs are basically group based where collective actions are at the cockpit of concerns. It appears to me that Actionaid attempts to address the "missing markets" through the development of collective wisdom and efforts rather than helping individuals in isolation.
The ides is to build capital of the poor, by the poor, and for the poor. And by poor they mean resource-constrained poor who are heavily dependent on agriculture, but fail to fight famine due to shortage of necessary inputs available in the market under the current arrays of anti-poor arrangements. In fact, the main thrust of Food Security for Sustainable Household Livelihood (Foshol) project, under the aegis of EC/IRRI, everywhere is like that.
A few kilometres drive from Kurigram town is Sarkar Para. The 25 resource-poor households that I met recently have a meeting room in their own premises. The signboard bears the name of Foshol and the group's name. Entering, I observed posters hung on walls pointing to the members of various sub-committees. I also noticed one plastic container that can store 50 kg of rice. Members have to contribute one handful of rice each week.
I was told that about 20 kg has been given to fellow comrades who are in dire need this month, but will return the rice after the amon crop is harvested. So, penny they saved during plenty, pound they gained during poverty. The relatively more enterprising households seem to have cultivated BR-33 -- a paddy crop that has already been harvested before monga could unleash its attack.
After BR-33, they now grow potato before going for irrigated crop (scheme crops). Meantime, they have learnt that BR-28 and 29 increase yield. Thus, introduction of early matured crop helped them avert monga-led misery to a some extent. Added to this was the knowledge gained on-line -- sowing, preparation of seedbeds and scientific preservation of seeds.
As a result of this kind of technological take up, total paddy production, reportedly, increased by 3-4 maunds/bigha. In rice equivalence, this amounts to about 73 kg of rice or 1.5 month requirement of a 5-member household. For pure tenants, it is 25 days after paying the rent to the landlord. Increased land productivity thus led to augmentation of natural capital.
But adoption of modern technology also needs working capital. These resource poor households had either no access to credit or had it from mohajons and quasi-mohajons at exorbitant rate of interest. Besides, some of them borrowed from NGOs in the past but gave up due to heavy burden in repayment. As a substitute of that source, they have developed an innovative mechanism to generate their own capital.
Every week, for the last few years, each household has been depositing Tk.5 to the group fund. A president, secretary and cashier are elected by them. There are five register khatas to record resolutions and transactions arising out of every meeting. The total deposit of about Tk. 20,000 so far (half from own savings and half from Actionaid) lies in local Krishi Bank branch. The presence of deposit slips and check books made them more managerial than before. Members could draw upon their own savings for a season. Say for Tk.1,000, they pay Tk.100 after the season. The projects are scrutinised by the group.
Recently, the group has invested the money in fish culture, leasing-in 100 decimals of local water shed. It is a two-year project and the group expects to gain a net profit of Tk. 2-3 lakhs to be added to the group'skitty. That means, after two years, each member could access to Tk 10,000-15,000 without being at the mercy of money lenders or NGOs.
The amount is much higher than the average amount of credit generally accessed by a poor rural household in Bangladesh each year. Access to credit is tagged with productive pursuits. Credit to them would then be a means to an end, not end in itself. Just a few years back, all of these 25 households had one meal in Kartik month; now they have three meals. The problem of financial capital is apparently resolved.
I met a group formed by women in Kuriar Par, few kilometres from Sarkar Para. Mrs. Morjina, Bokul and Laily impressed me with an anecdote to their livelihood patterns. They hardly knew before that homestead based food crops could bring for them some income. Actionaid trained them on growing food crops in and around homestead.
I observed that not an inch of the space left fallow in their homestead. "When children ask for a pen or pencil or for a khata, we sell one papya (Tk.40) or two eggs (Tk.10) and make them happy. We never valued vegetables as food items before. Now we eat sufficient amount of vegetables and sell the surplus in the market. The money is spent on children's education or entertainment … In the past, our poultry and ducks died due to the lack of vaccination; now we ourselves know how to do it and are having good returns from rearing chicks and ducks. Few years back, even in Kartik month, we were too poor to meet the demand of our children. We could not arrange even a single meal; now we can manage food well."
The group has already saved Tk.10,000 and deposited it in banks. "Now our husbands think that we are productive and hence they began to value our decisions. Earlier, we were idle to invite the indignity; knowledge on homestead based crops raised our ratings to husbands …" The same kind of story I heard in Islampur village where another group of twenty was fighting against monga through helps -- not of cash but of kind.
So, facing the attacks of monga is not a daunting challenge as it is deemed to be. The pathways are technology (a proxy for natural capital), human capital (training, skill development), financial capital (group savings), and innovative institutions (social norms and networking).
The resource-poor households have at their disposal all of these inputs covered under the shades of ignorance and apathy. What they need is discovering their potentials; an induction of knowledge as to how to optimally utilise their indigenous endowments. They should be taught about saving a penny today to gain a pound tomorrow, not the other way round.
Epilogue
As I was driving back to Dhaka, the sun was setting. I was pondering over a women's point: "Shahajjo palito valo hoi" (it is good to have helps). "What is shahajjo?" I wanted to know from her. "Kaimne chole bachimo" (how to lead the life). Quite obviously, she was referring to the knowledge that she gained to have a smile in her face even during the month of monga.
As I was driving back to Dhaka, the sun was setting. I was pondering over a women's point: "Shahajjo palito valo hoi" (it is good to have helps). "What is shahajjo?" I wanted to know from her. "Kaimne chole bachimo" (how to lead the life). Quite obviously, she was referring to the knowledge that she gained to have a smile in her face even during the month of monga.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.
Comments