Challenges that lie ahead of CIP

Fast-shrinking agricultural lands have stoked fears of a food crisis in Bangladesh as the country is failing to curb an indiscriminate transfer of arable lands to other uses. Land area is shrinking at an alarming rate. If cultivable lands continue to decline at this pace, it will be difficult for the country to attain self-sufficiency in food production. The government's efforts will then be a futile exercise. Experts expressed such concern at a time when food prices around the world are surging, spurred by ravaged crops due to adverse weather and subsequent bans on exports by some main producing countries. Food prices have also gone up in Bangladesh, which still produces its staple rice at a level near to self sufficiency, reinforcing the belief that dependence on the world market might not ensure food security unless there is adequate production at domestic level. Addressing a seminar on Country Investment Plan (CIP) in the city this week, Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith, did rightly note in this connection that the key challenge to food security lies in areas relating to ensuring access of poorer section to food, not merely the availability of food. For that matter, the CIP has to be translated into actions through active resource mobilisation for the agricultural sector to help attain food security. Therefore, a close partnership with development partners is critically important for increasing food production in the country. Now, what is CIP? The CIP is a country-led planning, fund mobilisation and alignment tool in support of increased and effective public investment in agriculture, food security and nutrition. The five-year comprehensive plan aims to ensure sustainable food security, and provides a coherent set of 12 priority investment programmes to improve food security and nutrition in an integrated way. The first version of the CIP was approved by the government last June and the plan is expected to be finalised next month. The government expects that the CIP would substantially increase employment opportunities in animal, fisheries, forestry, environment, and water resources development. It will not be out of place to note here that, successive governments have failed to give adequate attention to agriculture and food security. As a result, the country faced problems very often, notably in 2006 and 2007. But now the focus is sought to be given again on this sector. There is no denying that Bangladesh needs to raise additional funds to finance the CIP. Three fronts should be explored for possible source of the funds -- budgetary resources, development partners and financial institutions. The private sector has a meaningful role to play here as public sector investment to agriculture has not increased much. The latter trend, however, has to be reversed to give enough food to the people. Sufficient domestic production to meet the demand of the growing population, now estimated at about 160 million, will largely depend on factors such as raising productivity and protecting the agricultural lands. As noted at the outset, Bangladesh is losing its farmlands by 1.0 per cent every year due to transfer of lands to other uses such as human settlements, brick kilns and industries. Such a decline in farm lands has to be stopped to ensure food production and create jobs to help accelerate the pace of poverty reduction efforts. Demarcation of agricultural lands or for that matter, agricultural zoning, along with promotion of intensive cultivation, is also needed for the purpose. Reports say the government is expected to invest $7.98 billion to ensure food security in the next five years under CIP. It has requested the development partners to help meet a financing gap of $4.9 billion in the plan. Of the financing gap, $3.3 billion has been identified as first priority requirements through a participatory prioritisation process, and of the total investment plan, $3.04 billion will come from already allocated budget resources and contributions by the development partners. There are some persistent and emerging challenges to implement the CIP. As population is increasing and land is decreasing, equitable distribution of foods emerges as the biggest challenge. Such challenges should be addressed with due diligence. There is a need for diversification of the country's cereal production in the face of uncertainty in the global market. Progress could be made in provision of credit to enable the farmers in getting agricultural inputs. The employment opportunities will then substantially increase in agriculture, fisheries, forestry and livestock sub-sectors, under the CIP. In fact, there are enormous challenges as well for sustaining agriculture growth and enhancing food security, to fend off the impacts of climate change. Widespread poverty still persists, so is malnutrition. Under the given circumstances, population will keep on rising in the country, but the fact remains, the amount of land resources, mostly for agriculture, will continue to decrease. On the other hand, Bangladesh is facing difficulties in accessing natural resources, with increasing frequencies of natural disasters. Production of wheat, pulses, oilseeds, vegetables, fruits, milk and meat, still remain below actual requirements, resulting in higher levels of malnutrition in our children and women. In this connection, the CIP should adequately deal with issues related to improving farm practices, enhancing productivity and promoting efficiency in the sector, efficient marketing of farm produces, timely availability of farm inputs at fair prices, storage and processing of agricultural products and introduction of the latest technologies in the light of appropriate research & development (R&D) supports. szkhan@dhaka.net