Farmers' champion calls for budget action

Shykh Seraj (left), the anchor of a TV programme on agriculture, and a file photo (right) shows farmers are working at a paddy field.Photo: Amran Hossain

The TV camera pans across the paddy field and the faces of beleaguered farmers, before settling on the familiar image of Shykh Seraj, bespectacled and wearing his trade mark short sleeve shirt.
For 25 years Bangladeshi viewers have become accustomed to Shykh enthusiastically extolling the virtues of the country's farmers, of their toil, successes and challenges.
In today's report however he is struggling to find the positive. “This land produces crops three times a year. But now it is a question why some 500 acres of this fertile land has been selected to build export processing zones when less fertile and fallow lands can be used,” he laments to the camera.
While in the past Shykh's views might have fallen on deaf ears, now he can be assured that he has an attentive audience as Bangladeshi, and indeed global economic priorities, begin to change. The surging prices of food at home and internationally mean agriculture and food security now top the political agenda, from poor households to the top echelons of government.
For his part Shykh is targeting the need for reforms in this year's national budget attempting to act as a kind of champion for the rural communities in which he has spent so much time. In the last year he met more than 8,000 farmers in five districts in order to gauge their needs and expectations.
“My past programmes focused mainly on motivating people. Now I want to focus on policy issues relating to farmers' rights as well as to the overall development of agriculture,” he said, referring to unplanned land use, climate change and security of farmers.
In the last four years, Shykh has been focusing on the rights and expectation of farmers in the national budget, which he believes had paid little attention to farmers' problems and desires in previous days.
“I have been working on agriculture and farmers' budget since 2004. Initially, farmers had no idea about the national budget and subsidy. But now they are well aware of it,” he said.
The anchor of the tv programme titled 'Ridoya Mati O Manush' had realised the importance of the budget after he took note of agricultural advancement and the increase in production of various items such as rice, vegetables, poultry and fish.
“Our farmers now produce about 2.75 crore tonnes of rice, which was about 1 crore tonnes in 1971. But the farmers' condition remains unchanged. They are being exploited during buying and selling of farm inputs and outputs,” he said.
Shykh said farmers produce foods amid insecurity due to the absence of any crop insurance. They feed us taking all the risk of loss due to natural calamities like flood and cyclone, but they get less support, he said.
Shykh said farm inputs are expensive, but farmers are seeing their returns shrink.
“Our farmers take all the risks of flood, cyclone and other disasters, even though they get no premium from sales of their produce,” he said.
Referring to the recent hike in the prices of food locally and internationally, Shykh said farmers want uninterrupted irrigation facility, fertliser at their doors and availability of good quality seeds.
“I think the government should give the highest priority to agriculture in the next budget.
If we nurture our agriculture, we will be able to get rid of possible danger,” he said.
They should be awarded market price with a profit of their produces so that they feel encouraged, he said, suggesting that farmers' club or cooperatives should be set up to make sure that they are not denied fair prices.
Noting the steady decline in arable lands on urbanisation, habitat and industrialsation, he said efforts are needed to improve the fertility of lands, and also to provide farmers with information and the latest technology.
Shykh, who had a field level discussion with about 8,000 farmers in five districts, said farmers don't like to receive only 5 kg of fertiliser standing in a queue for a whole day.
“Changes have to be brought in the existing fertiliser distribution system,” he said.
He also recommended strengthening the capacity of Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation in supplying adequate seed and expanding the seed distribution channel from upazila level to union level.
“We will have to find out ways to increase production with low input costs,” he said, recommending effective training of field level agriculture officials.
Referring to the leaf colour chart and drum seeder, Shykh said these two foreign technologies should be transfered to the local farmers so that efficient use of fertiliser and reduction in farmers' sowing cost are ensured.
“The productivity from the existing technology has become stagnant. Farmers as well as field level agriculture officials will have to be equipped with new knowledge, information and technology," he said.
He also suggested building storage capacity to enable farmers to market their produce.
The government should take steps for river dredging and revamping the current irrigation projects, Shykh said.
Dwelling on production and marketing of farm products, Shykh said he prefers formation of village level cooperatives.

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