Containing wastages in agri sector

anagement Guru Shiv Khera says that good character is summation of good habits. Habits are formed by continuous repetition of good practices. Good practices are described in books of knowledge, scriptures and the same are passed on from one generation to the next by words of mouth and by demonstrations of individual and/or collective acts of parents, teachers, mentors and peer groups. This is more of common sense rather than any piece of profound advice or "Nasihat". Normal people dislike "Nasihat" although 'Nasihat' is useful in this material world and in the world hereafter. Allah (SWT) has kindly revealed in Sura Qamar (ie Moon). "We have made the Koran easy to remember: will any take heed ?" Ayat 17, Sura 54. (See the Koran from Penguin Classics, paperback page 374.) This is an attempt to underscore few selected vignettes of wastages in agriculture sector of our economy which can be reduced, or even avoided. We, the people of Bangladesh, are passing difficult times alongwith millions worldwide, due to economic reasons. Call it downturn, meltdown, sub optimal level of banking operations, increased exposure to economically toxic environment, unbridled greed coupled with and fuelled by wanton corruption by the high and mighty; the bottom line is more unease, more of chaos and less and lesser of happiness for the common men. To cap it all, there are new and newer battle fronts to control precious oil, other minerals and land routes and sea lanes by great powers. Resultant effects always touch adversely the LDCs. Suffering has one universal rule: that most of the suffering will be deposited with the poor and vulnerable. The rich will get richer and the poor will get children. Poor countries will therefore suffer more. Primary producers will not get fair prices, always. Thus inside Bangladesh, we become victims of almost continuous fall of DSE index in our share market, while the inflation reaches double digit and dollar appreciates to Tk. 80/ and more, the govt. is bound to levy more tax and hike train fare. Prices of commodities have registered marked increases, but primary producers of paddy, potato, vegetables or cash crops like jute and sugarcane cannot hope to get "fair prices" of their produce, largely because of the govt.'s policies and private sector manipulation. We buy one bag of urea at no less than Tk. 1,000/ and similarly other inputs are pricier. Thus the marginal farmer remains at the margin; in spite of his genuine labour and sweat his position is not improving. We have seen pictures in daily newspapers, how vegetable growers in the northern districts are bound to feed goats with cauliflowers due to buyers' control; sellers of vegetables are leaving heaps of radishes on wayside for anybody's pick, to wither and to rot. Surely these wastages could have been minimised, even avoided. More vegetables could be provided to diet in hospitals, orphanages and jails. A simple goodwill and little money were needed to address stability and fair return on investment to the marginal farmers. We, often see reports that our cultivable land is shrinking. This we can see almost daily. Every year, there are programmes of new road building and reconstruction ; we learn from debates of high ups, that enough money for road maintenances was there (!); alternatively was not there (!!). In road construction, very few roads were built along the river embankments - and many were east west roads. On these roads, culverts and bridges have been built - almost always without considering flood level water flow requirements. To minimize costs, and to maximize profits, required span of culverts and bridges and adequate clearing height were compromised and will not be found. Consider the bridges on the Turag or the Balu river within the City limits to verify the observation. This happens at every stage down below and thus causes thousands of localized flooding during monsoon. Very few are reported in newspapers. Permanent injury has been inflicted on the road system through these narrow, low height culverts and bridges. Thousands of them were built both by the local government engineering and the roads and highways department. Permanent damage has also been caused to agricultural lands around culverts through year-round waterlogging. This may well be compared with deadweight loss of a company - which is never recoverable. Who pays for this kind of loss? We only see an expansion of road network, in line with promises of politicians. While per person road share increases, rail system stagnates and per person cultivable land diminishes. All of us users of the road system and dependants of agricultural lands on both sides culverts and bridges pay for these losses. Roads are planned through haors and beels causing extremely adverse environmental impacts on the flora and fauna of wetlands. Dr. Akbar Ali Khan and other economists have many times raised the issue of saving wetlands for the ecologically sound agriculture, fisheries and forestry. But wanton damage is done by the government agencies and property developers and this trend is continuing unabated. Even the Hon'able High Court and the Supreme Court have often issued suo moto rules and verdicts to save environment ; but we see little respite from the wastage of sweet water bodies, rivers and the sea shores. Even the active coral islands of St. Martin are being threatened with wanton greed, through mining of corals by irresponsible settlers and tourists. Localised extraction of sand by shallow engines have caused land slides in some districts. The locally crafted dredgers have pumped in millions of tonnes of sand from rivers - the Turag, the Balu and the Buriganga and have filled up beautiful lakes and water bodies of Keraniganj, Sreenagar and those around Ashulia. These activities have permanently destroyed ecosystem of these areas and have reduced both agriculture and aquaculture, fuelled by all pervasive greed of developers and their ferocious attacks on the poor and weak which are often desisted by agencies of the state. Another type of wastage occurs due to brick making. In India, there is a law to prevent manufacture of bricks using topsoil. The topsoil about (1' - 1 1/2') one foot to one and half feet in depth, from the top contains millions of beneficial organisms microbes which give sustenance to the flora which grows on the soil. These organisms have evolved through hundreds and thousands of years - and they form the active part of soil fertility, the humus. Indian law makes it mandatory that brick makers will have to dig out the top soil and, store the same in a heap and use the soil below the humus rich top soil for brick making. We do not have this restriction in Bangladesh. We make bricks with top soil, which is cheaper to make (!) and burn the useful microbes. These bricks are now being exported to India. Poor formers' land is gradually being converted into wasteland ! Sometimes these depressions are being used for aquaculture. But on the whole, depressions created either by subsidence due to indiscriminate sand extraction or by unplanned digging of cultivated land-have reduced the cultivable acreage noticeably. To minimize the extent of damage and to optimize the agriculture, suitable ecofriendly amendment to brick kiln rules is urgently needed. Another area of growing wastages come through division of land due to inheritance. Land is being continuously divided and subdivided into small and smaller plots. Knowledgeable sources in 1980s estimated the total area covered by such plot demarcations to be equal to greater district of Faridpur. Why not create incentives to consolidate lands? In the subcontinental India, such an experiment was successfully carried through in the then Punjab Province. When the British colonial administration laid out canal system of irrigation in Punjab, they introduced "'The Punjab Land Consolidation Act, 1936". Both India and Pakistan are now benefiting through this land consolidation. Agricultural productivity increased; efficiency in agricultural practices increased by degrees through mechanization and seed fertilizer irrigation technologies. Decades afterwards, in the DVA (the Damodar Vally Authority) areas, mainly in Midnapore of West Bengal (now Paschimbangla) Jyoti Basu's government carried out land consolidation. During Pakistani rule, a tentative experiment was introduced in Debiganj Thana (now Upazila) of present day Panchagarh district with uncertain results. Surely large optimization of landuse will be possible through consolidation of small plots. For this to happen, enabling legal structure is the need of the hour. We stand to gain in agricultural productivity and more in job creation in agriculture per se and related fields of agro-industries. This may be attempted phasewise, district by district. We may take a leaf from South Korean experience - where villages were merged in Saemul Un Dong programme, where cement was provided free from the government. Villagers were encouraged with this incentive to rebuild their homes with a uniform plan; one or two storied homes were constructed. Row housing came into practice with ecofriendly landuse. Great optimization in different sectors of economy was seen to occur ; for example, more land for agriculture became available. With around 30,000 villagers lesser volume of roads, lesser volume of electric connection yielded immediate benefits. Consider the optimization in education and health facilities. Thousands of jobs were created and Korean boom followed. Similar boom is eminently possible in Bangladesh, but mental blocks of the people who are in charge is preventing this occur. If land consolidation is possible in the DVA in Paschimbangla why this cannot be repeated in the GK Project area of Kushtia, or the Meghna - Dhonagoda Project area of Comilla or in the Barendra Project area ? Another area of wastage in agriculture is use of irrigation water. Fortunately, Dr. Majid and his group in the RDA Bogra have introduced successful technology of underground irrigation channels in the Barendra Project area. This has eliminated the loss of land due to small irrigation channels to carry water to the field ; it has reduced to almost zero the loss of water due to evaporation and otherwise seepage losses of water. Both the RDA and Dr. Majid have been recognised with National Awards. It is a pleasing site to move around the Barendra project where irrigated agriculture is producing more crop. A simple overhead water tank of few thousand gallons with a deep tube well (DTW) facility has enabled running water to kitchens of village homes in the Barendra Project area of greater Rajshahi and Bogra districts. Close your eyes and imagine the bliss and happiness of women of those villages. Thus optimisation of water use also has led to enhancement of quality of life. I close here on a positive note. This is hardly a comprehensive note on wastages in Bangladeshi agriculture and their possible remedies. I have only touched on a number of areas where some attempts are possible both in terms of legislation and awareness building. ............................................................ The writer of the article is a former secretary to the government of Bangladesh