Poultry farmers from different areas under Dhamrai upazila registered a novel protest on Tuesday last in order to draw the attention of the authorities concerned. More than 500 owners of poultry farms smashed about 20,000 eggs on the Dhaka-Aricha Highway as part of their protest against import of eggs from India and demand for lowering prices of poultry feed. Well, first they tried to put up a blockade on the busy highway, bringing traffic to a halt but then moved away on the roadside to hold a peaceful protest programme.
Now the question is, when are farmers compelled to come out on the street to give vent to their pent-up emotion marked by self-inflicted pain? Their protests are markedly different from the rabid political ones known for violence and destruction of property -state or otherwise. Instead of relying on brute forces as unleashed by political or other outfits, farmers keep faith in their innocence and self-righteousness. Dairy farmers and jute growers opted several times in the past for this extreme form of demonstration at their own costs. All because they thought they were given a raw deal by the men in power.
Have the policy-makers seriously asked the question, why should the sons of the soil who feed the nation be subjected to such abject maltreatment? True, their survival is inseparable from their livelihoods which are of primary nature but what if they stop growing crops including vegetables and fruits, raising livestock and attending fish farming? Credit goes to them for becoming equal to the task of meeting the demand for foods from an ever increasing number of mouths. In return, the primary growers receive hardly any policy support from the state. The Agriculture Extension Department, Bangladesh has a role in the cultivation stage but so far as marketing of the produces is concerned the entire exercise is in a total mess.
Perishable vegetables and fruits such as cauliflower, cabbage, radish, tomato, pineapple, melon, mango etcetera have often made screaming headlines because a glut of such nutritious food items in their farming area forced farmers either to sell those at throw-away prices or leave to rot in the field or use as cattle feed. When farmers count losses and curse their fate because of lack of demand for their produces, people in most other parts of the country are compelled to buy such items at exorbitant prices. The demand for such vegetables and fruits are high in cities, towns and areas where these cannot be grown. Clearly, the country's marketing mechanism is still at its primitive and unless an effective marketing network can be developed, a balance cannot be struck between the growing and non-growing areas.
Apart from this zoning marketing structure, there is yet another deliberate ploy resorted to by big players in order to maximise their profits at the expense of the primary growers. Paddy, jute and potato amply provide an example of this distortion or manipulation of normal marketing practices. Earlier it was jute, when the produce was the main cash crop, that had to be subjected to artificial sluggish demand so much so that farmers in their unlimited rage made bonfires of their once golden fibre at marketplaces. Now rice and potato farmers find themselves in a sticky situation. For years together growers are now compelled to dispose of their produces at prices much below their production cost while middlemen, millers and hoarders are reaping outrageous benefits from the same food items.        Â
In time of the recent political turmoil, farmers became the worst sufferers because whatever transportation facilities are present in the country were totally disrupted and produces rot or were locally sold at a nominal price. Admittedly though, the existing system of marketing is abnormal even during peace time, thanks to the unchallenged hold on it by middlemen, rent seekers and trading syndicates. Even companies in which the government has the majority share are no exception to this rule. Dairy farmers in the country's north made news by spilling tons of milk on the street in protest against low price and reluctance to collect their milk. Packet milk becomes suddenly dearer apparently with no reason to justify the decision. The poor milkmen however do not get any benefit from the enhanced prices the end users are made to pay.
Evidently, the system is not farmer-friendly; rather it is biased towards business -not business as usual but business thriving on dubious motives and practices. All this is not going to strengthen the economy down from its base. Rationality demands that the case of farmers and growers be reviewed in the interest of food production. The memory of imported cereals, crisis of the same and other foodstuffs should be troubling enough. If the same spectre of food crisis, hunger and malnutrition revisits the country, the people responsible for policy formulation and administration will not be able to forgive themselves for letting down the nation.
Farmers have shown enough patience so far. If their unending frustration leads them to turn away from cultivation of the staple food together with those that cause them losses year after year, they cannot be blamed for the move. In a wide swathe of Bandarban, farmers have turned to tobacco cultivation because it is highly profitable and tobacco companies provide enough financial incentive. So poultry and other farmers are quite right in demanding low prices for their inputs. That way their production cost will be lower and their produces are expected to leave a reasonable profit margin.
nilratanhalder2000@yahoo.com
Primary growers deserve better
Nilratan Halder | Published: April 04, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00
Share if you like