The sight of a fruit vendor displaying good quality luscious strawberries at the unlikely street corner no more surprises the Dhakaites. In fact, this exotic fruit announces its ubiquitous presence almost anywhere in the city. Its price too is unexpectedly very low. A couple of years back a kilogram of strawberry used to be sold at Tk 800-1,000. Last year the price came down to half that margin. This year it sells as low as Tk 100 a kilo. To think that the fruit sells at a price so low because of the blockade or hartal is to subscribe to a mistaken idea. The fact is farmers have produced strawberries aplenty and the fruits are yet to appeal to the uninitiated in a big way.
Then there are broccolis also in abundant supply and at unbelievably low prices. One can buy a considerably large piece at the price of a cauliflower. This was not the case in the past. A broccoli sold at twice the price of a cauliflower. Only capsicum is stilly very pricey today. Hopefully, it will not take long to drastically bring the price of capsicum down as well.
Now these are developments on the agricultural front not to be allowed to slip by listlessly. These are a testimony to the relentless experiment leading to success for agricultural scientists coupled with entrepreneurship of farmers. What is so satisfying is the fact that the success achieved by scientists in laboratory has been translated into the intended practical purposes through collaboration of all concerned. Success gained earlier in development of plume varieties like BAU cul (plume) and its cultivation have helped change the fate of many a farmer in this country. Their plume orchards yield harvest worth hundreds of thousands of takas annually. A happy combination of research-experiments and field-level implementation! Both agricultural scientists and farmers deserve appreciation for their innovation and entrepreneurship.
It would be wrong to assume that people in this part of the world -often blamed in the past for lack of innovation and enterprising skills -have concentrated their focus on agriculture alone. When a carpenter or potter or a clay artist based in a village away from the capital has his exquisitely crafted articles exported to western countries, it is recognition for his creativity and a stroke of luck. But when an entire village or the majority of village people cultivate flower or produce handicrafts for export to foreign countries or even meet domestic demand, the true spirit of entrepreneurship is best displayed.
This tradition of artisanship in combination with entrepreneurship flourished when Bengal produced the finest cloth called 'muslin' and its lion's share of income came from export goods. China has followed the path of developing specialised industrial villages very successfully in modern times. The advantage of such production base is that the manufacturing cost of products can be minimised for capturing markets abroad because of the competitive edge. What Bengal in the past produced and exported virtually had no competitors. Manufacturers of today's Bangladesh are unlikely to have that luck.
Today, instead of originality, imitation at the primary stage and adding extra something are enough to capture the market. Also labour cost is a factor here. Not all countries are eager to manufacture items when expenditure on labour proves uneconomic. The room left thus is for the aspiring developing countries to grab. This has happened in an explosive way in the area of readymade apparel manufacturing. Sure enough, the initial tentative venture by a few entrepreneurs was encouraged by importers abroad. But not everything followed a well-designed system and hence the apparel industry met reversals time and again in the form of devastating fire in garments factories and even collapse of factory buildings.
Entrepreneurs in a developing country like Bangladesh cannot invest in a big way and hence they have to expand their manufacturing units gradually. But by the time they have done so, the messy condition created in the process crosses the limit of redemption. The reason is simple: entrepreneurs are busy exploiting as much profit as possible without caring so much for sharing with workers and creating a conducive working environment. Â
Individual entrepreneurship has flourished here and now is the time of piecing together collective efforts to make an economic miracle happen. There are potential candidates asking for attention. The Keraniganj denim hub, a result of isolated entrepreneurship with hardly any official support, is one such candidate. What a wonderful phenomenon of entrepreneurship the initiators of jeans manufacturing there has displayed. They have proved their skill and craftsmanship too. Only if they went through the accepted learning process, they could give a better account of themselves to match the high-end demand. It is exactly where organised and methodical effort towards industrialisation proves its superiority to such amateurish or isolated individual entrepreneurship.
The small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in this country could not make much of a headway simply because of this lack of organising ability at the official level. People here have busted the myth that they are idle and averse to innovation. In fact their industry, resilience and hunger for innovation have brought the country out of its 'basket case' infamy. Sterling success in agriculture has not been matched by those in the industrial sector simply because official patronage has been wanting. Keraniganj's denim belt should not be allowed to embrace the fate of garments factories. It may not be late yet to reorganise the production units there by constructing decent factories with all the modern facilities and spaces required for the purpose. This is a key to avoiding future disasters like those in the garments factories.
Yet another candidate for such reorganisation in terms of location and production line is the footwear industry. The size and volume of industries like this are most suitable for a small country like Bangladesh. The turnover from them can compete with that of the apparel sector. These are areas where people's entrepreneurship can be gainfully harnessed.
nilratanhalder2000@yahoo.com
People\\\'s resourcefulness and entrepreneurship
Nilratan Halder | Published: March 06, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00
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