Cooperative-based production, marketing a must: speakers
Only strong farmer organisations and cooperative methods of agricultural production and marketing can save the country's agriculture sector whereas 82 percent of the farmers have become landless, said speakers at a webinar yesterday.
In association with The Daily Star, the Association for Land Reform and Development (ALRD) organised the online roundtable on "Food Sovereignty, Inclusive Food System and Access to Land Organisers", marking World Food Day 2020.
Prof MM Akash of Dhaka University told the event that farmers are being pushed out from this sector; after being landless, they are migrating to other informal sectors. "Second generation of farmers in Bangladesh don't want to be a farmer, but they have the ownership of agricultural land which should be taken from them and distributed among those who want to do farming," said Prof Akash.
"We should ensure labour rights for the farmworkers and abolish discrimination between men and women. We have to ensure fair prices for the agricultural products and availability of agricultural ingredients," said the economist.
He proposed a cooperative-based agricultural structure.
In the keynote speech, Rowshan Jahan Moni, deputy executive director of ALRD also mentioned about cooperative ownership of production and marketing.
She said poor and disadvantaged sectors -- including small farmers, rural artisans, indigenous people, fisherfolks, poor urban dwellers and women -- have been hit hardest by the Covid-19 pandemic and remain the most vulnerable and food system is a major concern. She said there should be an agrarian reform of land to restore land rights to the farmers.
"Khas land and agricultural government land can be distributed among landless farmers instead of a settlement policy where the influential peoples got the benefits," added Rowshan Jahan.
Khushi Kabir, coordinator of Nijera Kori and chairman of ALRD, chaired the roundtable meeting.
Chakma Circle Chief Barrister Raja Devasish Roy, Assistant Country Representative (Program) of FAO in Bangladesh Nur Ahmed Khandaker, Executive Director of ALRD Shamsul Huda, General Secretary of Bangladesh Indigenous Peoples Forum (BIPF) Sanjeeb Drong, Vice-President of Consumers Association of Bangladesh SM Nazer Hossain and Executive Director of Rupantar Swapan Kumar Guha spoke at the event.
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