'Curse' of Bumper Crop
Courtesy: The Daily Star
Disaster has struck the jute grower. Danger bells are ringing for the national economy. The reason is, paradoxically, a bumper production of jute. Add to it the traditional bane of lack of holding power of the jute farmer. In many areas the price offered for a maund is less than Tk 140. Production cost for the same weight of jute has been at least Tk 340. The farmer must be saved from the ruination this will mean for him unless the situation is corrected in a matter of days. If peasants suffer there is no way for Bangladesh not to.
The Prime Minister took no time to appreciate the grave situation and act. A high-powered committee met on Sunday to moot ways to remedy the slump, ensure just price and infuse strength into the market. As a first measure towards those ends the BJMC was directed immediately to commence buying jute directly from the growers. The purchase programme would need enough funds to be able to stabilise the market above the bottom price. That flow of necessary funds has been promised.
However correct the decisions may be - the present ones are indeed so - treating the market to health would greatly depend on the purchase operations which must be within the reach of the individual growers and at the same time be transacted with absolute fairness and efficiency. To ensure this, high-level district committees would be formed. Prime Minister Hasina, presiding over the meet, directed the authorities "to accelerate the process of jute sector reforms and infrastructural development of jute management at grassroots level."The evil consequences of a glut at the growers' level can only be obviated by large new foreign offtakes or innovation of radical uses embraced by manufacturers at home. The meeting was told of a Russian offer to buy jute and jute goods worth 15 to 20 million dollars. These are all to the good. But in spite of such and a myriad other corrective measures taken from time to time over the past so many decades, jute has steadily been dwindling as an earner for the nation as well for the individual grower. That was a result of our jute and jute goods occupying a dangerously decreasing area in world trading. Of the many profitable uses jute was to be put, as again touted for decades on end, none has so far proved a success story. The latest in the line has been the chimera of paper from green jute. What ever has happened to that? A clear elaborate idea is overdue.
Exasperated, we ask the government, without polite embellishments, why aren't you banning polythene bags here and now? What is holding you? Khaleda Zia's reprieve to the polythene lobby is nearing the end or is already over. For jute's sake, for this nation's sake ban the dangerous bags without wasting anymore time. That would surely allow jute a much-needed breather.
Courtesy: The Daily Star
While the country is draining crores on cotton import, a high potential for growing it in Rajshahi region is being ruined for lack of care and credit to the farmers, reports UNB.
Scarcity of quality seeds and absence of efficient marketing system are two other factors spoiling the prospects, although there is a Cotton Development Board entrusted with the responsibility of looking after these problems. Cotton Development Board office was set up in Rajshahi in 1972 to help cotton cultivation. After the inception of CDB, cotton production increased, but it was far below target.
There are 10 cotton development units in Natore, Rajshahi and Naogaon districts under the Board. However, since its inception, the CDB has failed to achieve any real development in cotton production, said an official wishing anonymity.
"If the extension programme in cotton farming could be implemented successfully, the lion's share of total national requirement would have been fulfilled locally," he said. Only 15 per cent of the country's cotton requirement is met by local output while the rest comes from abroad through import. A local expert said cotton farming proved to be more profitable than other cash crops like jute and tobacco. If proper steps had been taken, an additional 20,000 acres of land could have been brought under cotton cultivation in the zone, official sources said.
There are 20,000 acres of land in Rajshahi zone suitable for cotton growing, and 15,000 acres them are economically viable. According to sources, farmers are facing fund shortage for cotton production. They could hardly reap the benefits of loan disbursed every year due to "red-tapism". In many cases, farmers applying for cotton loans are allegedly harassed by the bank officials. The per-acre production cost of cotton is estimated between Tk 4,500 and Tk 5,000. Most of the small and marginal farmers will not be able to bear the cost of production without institutional credit support.
Scarcity of improved variety of cotton seeds is also a major stumbling block to the per-acre yield. The total cotton production would double if the regular quantum of quality seeds could be made available, official sources said. However, the CDB failed to meet the procurement target of seed-cotton due to non-availability of funds and fixation of low rate.
In the zone, the cotton board has purchased about 2,500 maunds of seed-cotton so far against its procurement target of 4,000 maunds this year. The CDB, in many cases, failed to procure cotton at the official rate due to active participation of traders in the private sector. The official price of seed-cotton has been fixed at Tk 1,040 per maund. But the private traders are buying seed-cotton between Tk 1,100 and Tk 1,200 per maund in Rajshahi region this year, sources said.
Acute scarcity of improved seeds adversely affected the total production. The total demand for quality seeds is estimated at 570 maunds for Rajshahi zone while the CDB supplied 300-375 maunds, only 40 to 50 per cent of the requirement. The growers need quick cost money as they do not have much institutional credit support and smooth marketing system. "Otherwise," said the experts, "cotton farming cannot be developed."
Courtesy: The Independent
Agricultural extension is an applied behavioural science which is applied to bring about desirable changes in the behavioural complex of farming community, usually through various strategies and programmes of change, by applying latest scientific and technological innovation. The system of extension was first used in the United States of America during the first decade of this century to connote the "extension of scientific agricultural production knowledge" from the agricultural colleges to the farming community through the process of informal education system. The objectives of the agricultural extension to the farming community are the expression of the ends towards which our efforts are directed. In other words the objective connotes the direction of movement.The fundamental objective of agricultural extension in our country is the development of the farming community and the overall development of rural economy in general. As regards agricultural extension the following objectives are concerned. 1. Dissemination of the information relating to advanced technology in agricultural production which includes usage of improved seeds, methods of use of chemical fertilisers;2. Application of advanced scientific knowledge to the farming and home of the rural people;3. Scientific management of land based farming such as horticulture, sericulture, dairying, poultry etc, by the farming community;4. Overall improvement of the life of the rural people within the framework of the national economic and social policies for the uplift the rural people as a whole.Agricultural extension involves both learning and teaching methods as it forms an educational process for bringing about the maximum number of people within the fold of desirable changes in them. The essential role of agricultural extension workers is to create an effective learning situation. Most effective learning situation requires the following elements:a) Instructor: The village level worker (Extension worker) with the information on scientific knowledge; b) Learner: Farmer, Farm women and the village youth, the target group; c) Subject matter: Advanced scientific knowledge such as the practices of cultivation of hybrid varieties of seeds, fertilisers, its planned use, pesticides, improved implements, land and water management system etc; d) Teaching aids: Such as charts, models, samples, slides, film shows, flannel boards, flip charts etc; e) Physical facilities: These include places where farmers could sit around or go around for practical studies;Agricultural extension workers, should skillfully manipulate the above five items to communicate the advanced technology to the farming community with the main objective of bringing about change in their economic conditions. Extension teaching is the process through which the extension workers stimulate interest in learning more by using various teaching methods, tools and techniques to improve the situation.This knowledge and skill should be so applied by the extension worker so as to arouse in them the interest to adopt the advanced scientific technology in their day to day practice. Extension workers may adopt any one of the methods to communicate the knowledge to the farming community in the rural area through individual contact or group contact or mass contact method to disseminate agricultural technology through farm and home visits or through community centre visit or through group contacts. He must also use the result demonstration or method demonstration to advocate the efficacy of various advanced practices or group discussions and exhibitions. Effective agricultural extension was bedevilled by a range of problems such as a lack of a single line of command, dilution of efforts by assigning too many jobs to extension workers. Excessively large areas of operation without providing any logistic support i. e. vehicle. Lack of regular training for updating knowledge of extension workers. Lack of research findings appropriate to condition of farmers field, low status and morale of extension staff and the duplications of services by various development departments. At present other than Agricultural Extension Department there are 14 agencies and some NGO's that are involved in Agricultural Extension activities. But sadly true, there exists little coordination among these departments. There is no harm in identifying the problem areas by individual organisation/agencies, but in any case a strong co-ordination should exist so as to make co-ordinated efforts to resolve those problems. It is encouraging to note that 18 ATCs have been formed and under the umbrella of these 18 ATCs we can work together for achieving the goal. Need for Adoption of Agricultural Extension System for Increased Productivity: The world population in 1990 was 1 billion, it became 2 billion by 1930, 3 billion by 1960 and by 2000 AD it is expected to touch 6.2 billion. However, in order to feed these teeming million the food demand will be in the order of 1550 billion tons at the rate of 250 kgs of cereal per capita and the world has already achieved in 1980 1587 billion tones of food production. Still hunger haunts the human race. The reason is not then the shortage but lack of purchasing power. In fact food is used as an weapon by the developed countries. It should have been the task of mankind to assure the people of this world at large of their right to be free from hunger through increased production. Increased agricultural production can be brought about by advocating the advanced scientific knowledge to bring about changes in the production standards of those areas where the potential is not fully exploited to the level the science has achieved today.To illustrate the point let us have a look at the productivity of rice in the world. Productivity per ha, in kgs of rice in China is 3717, Japan 6240, Korea 6556, Spain 6198, Italy 5607, India 1792, Bangladesh 2077. The figures indicate that country like Korea has a technology to produce a level of 6556 kgs/ha so there is a wide gap between the productivity level of Korea and Bangladesh and if this is bridged, the productivity can be raised by at least two-three folds in Bangladesh. This can be brought about by revolutionising the production technology through extension education in Bangladesh. The extension education is the early means through which the desired transformations can be brought about in the agricultural land productivity of the farming community. Through agricultural education has helped increase agricultural productivity impressively in Bangladesh particularly with new high yielding varieties developed by our own scientist of Bangladesh Rice Research Institute and Bangladesh Institute of Nuclear Agriculture, yet one must acknowledge that more dynamism and coordinated efforts are needed to accomplish the challenging task ahead of us to attain self-sufficiency in food by 2000 and if we are to achieve this target, there is a need for strong and sustainable agricultural extension system in the country. Economic research studies on the source of agricultural productivity differences across countries have led to the major inference that source of productivity differences can be classified into three broad groups - resource endowments (e.g. land), technical inputs (e.g. seeds and fertilisers), and the human capital, comprising education, skill and knowledge embodied in a country's population. It is in this perspective that technology development (through research) and technology transfer (through extension and education) have been identified as key inputs indispensable for developing and sustaining a productivity led agricultural sector. Yields are the eventual consequences of developmental efforts, and extension impact would be reflected more in yields than in other measures. Research findings will be meaningless unless they are accepted by the farmers. The results of agricultural research should be available to the farmers through the network of extension system. Farmers are intelligent enough to adopt those technologies which are beneficial and bring economic return. Now what is needed is healthy coordination between extension department and research institutions in a more effective way. At present the coordination seams to be almost illusive. There should have been an Agricultural Research Extension Wing like the one in Indian Agricultural Research Institute. However, the present communication and extension wing of individual research institutes should be strengthened and if necessary re-organised to suit the need for better extension service to the farmers and research sub-stations. The Upazila Agricultural Extension Office should be the focal point and research institutes should work in a coordinated way with the extension department. The present extension worker in the farmer's field does not give a good profile. Extension workers, having adequate agricultural education background should be chosen for this challenging task. The transition from the multipurpose extension system to "knowledge transfer alone" single function extension system has been a striking development in agricultural extension. A brief exposition of the major premises and facets of the system is here. The model emphasises (a) technical advice to raise crop production by emphasising dominant crops and key practices; (b) two step flow communication system (i.e. communication to technical messages by village extension workers to the contract farmers, and by contact farmers to the farmers); and (c) closer links between research and extension, and regular training of extension staff to increase the professional competence of extension workers is of vital importance. It is clear from the foregoing facts that the agricultural extension has a definite role to play in bringing about the social change in the system and development of economy of any nation. The part to be played by the agricultural extension is of vital importance in a developing country like Bangladesh. National developments therefore, depends upon the recognition and primacy given to this subject in the planning process. One can say with considerable confidence that if extension and research work together shoulder to shoulder there is no reason why we will not be able achieve self sufficiency in food by the year 2000. But to achieve this goal and objective the prime need is pledge together to achieve together.
Courtesy: The Daily Star
In a year of bumper harvest, some amount of price decline is inevitable. But in our country bumper crop appears to come as a curse for the farmers. What an irony! On the one hand, we do everything to make our farmers produce more, and then when they do, we fail to provide them a fair price resulting in a huge financial loss for them. First was the bumper aman harvest. This was followed by a good boro crop. This resulted in a low price for rice leading to a loss of few thousand crores of taka income for our poor farmers. Now comes the crunch on jute prices. There has been a bumper jute crop of 60 million tons. Our columnist Shahed Latif estimates an average loss of Tk 100 per maund amounting to an estimated loss of Tk. 3,000 crore of disposable income for our farmers.
With losses on both the rice and jute harvest disposal income in the hands of our farmers went down dramatically leading to a weakening of effective demand overall. We agree with Shahed Latif's conclusion that low farm income is the root cause of the current economic slump. Without the usual demand for goods and services from our industrial sector, which usually used to be spurred by demand from the agricultural sector our economy cannot show the buoyancy that is it capable of. We urge our government to seriously take the suggestions made in his piece published on Wednesday last.
What we fail to understand is: why has the government been caught so unprepared by the bumper jute crop, and why also the farmers were allowed to lose so much money in aman and boro crop? We understand that in a free market economy, there should not exist any subsidy. But on the other hand, all advanced countries extend some sort of price support for the agricultural products in some form or the other. On the one hand, we ask our farmers to do their best to produce more. Then we do nothing when their efforts lead to great losses due to fall in prices. We will never be able to go for higher level of agricultural output if we do not ensure a fair price to the farmers. Failure to ensure a fair price to our farmers not only destroys the agricultural sector, but also 'destroys' our industrial sector by depressing demand.
