Farmers' fate never changes for land graft

The farmers cannot improve their economic status because of various forms of corruption in land and agriculture sectors, Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) Chairman Prof Muzaffer Ahmad said yesterday.
"Farmers work heart and soul but can't sustain their achievements. It's the traders and middlemen who get the cream," he said while speaking as the chief guest at a seminar on food security organised by Diploma Krishibid Institution (DKI) at the National Press Club.
Corruption in the land offices hugely affects farmers' interests, Ahmad said. He suggests land reforms and computerised land management system to ensure rights of the landless people and check land-related corruption.
He also recommended reforms in the marketing process of agricultural products.
"To increase agricultural production, the farmers must get due price of their products. But unfortunately it's the wholesale businesses and middlemen who buy products at low cost and sell at much higher prices, depriving the farmers," said the economist.
Farmers also have little access to credit and therefore have no alternative to cooperatives to get running capital, Prof Ahmad said, adding once marginal farmers get some land and are provided with credit, production will automatically go up.
"At the same time, we have to concentrate on our indigenous knowledge instead of importing fertilisers from other countries. Through waste management we can produce huge natural fertilisers similar to urea and potassium," he added.
Expressing his concern that most of the country's rivers have already dried up, Ahmad said saving the rivers and other water bodies is a matter of utmost importance for irrigation, instead of mechanised irrigation that poses ecological threats.
Agriculturists at the seminar suggested modernising agriculture on the basis of locally developed crop varieties and natural fertilisers to ensure sustainable agricultural development instead of depending on imported hybrid varieties and chemical fertilisers.
Soil Research and Development Institute Principal Scientific Officer Dr Anisur Rahman said an important part of agriculture is cultivating crops according to the nature of soil.
If farmers can scientifically identify the nature and capacity of soil, they can accordingly cultivate and get the best yield, he said, adding authorities must concentrate on educating the farmers on crop management.
Prof Dr SM Imamul Haq of Dhaka University's soil, water and environment department said the country's soil is fast degrading because of too much use of chemical ingredients and irrigated underground water.
He warned that the consequences of cultivating imported hybrid seeds may be very bad because of farmers' dependency and unexpected collapse in the imported seed supply system. He suggested producing local high-yielding varieties for sustainability.
Dhaka University Professor AAMS Arefin Siddiqui, National Agribusiness Foundation of Bangladesh Chairman Dr MA Nasir, Bangladesh Institute of Nuclear Agriculture Scientist Niaz Pasha, Ittefaq Executive Editor Syed Tosharaf Ali, agriculturist Nazrul Islam spoke at the seminar chaired by DKI Central President Zahiruddin Mobu and moderated by Secretary General Sarkar Mohammad Abul Kalam Azad.
DKI also conferred DKI Krishi Padak-2008 to Dr MA Nasir, agriculturists Sadrul Amin, M Najmul Haq and Joynal Hossain, and agriculture extension officer Zahiruddin Mobu and entrepreneur Kaniz Fatema for their contribution to agriculture.