Draft National Agriculture Policy: Some suggestions
Tuesday, 10 May 2011
Dr. Aminul Islam Akanda
Agribusiness generally means agriculture related business that embraces the production, processing and distribution of agriculture products and the manufacture of farm machinery, agrochemicals and other supplies. The agribusiness in its primitive age was limited to the basic need-based business like selling spices for foods and supplying cotton for textiles. Capital accumulation in agriculture started with adoption of green revolution (GR) technology. The GR is called the seed-fertiliser-water technology used in farming high yielding variety (HYV) crops. Fertiliser, seed, agrochemical and farm machinery industries emerged in the mid twentieth century to supply necessary inputs for agricultural production. In the meanwhile, agro-processing and agro-based industries came in operations in the developed countries. Many large scale capital intensive agribusiness industries are now involved in supplying inputs, processing farm products and distributing food products in the world. Bangladesh agriculture has been changed from its peasant mode of operation to commercial operation at a limited extent. Farmers are now much integrated not only to input markets but also to product markets. Many of them buy rice using sale proceeds of commercial crops, which was not seen even in two decades back. In commercial agriculture, the farmers sell farm products to both the traders and firms, who process and distribute those among consumers in distant markets. Meanwhile, distant marketing of commercial crops has expanded non-institutionally. A case study has explored this type of development in a village in the mid 1980s. Moreover, agro-processing farms have started to expand since early 2000s as the processed foods has gradually become popular among young people. In recent years, contract farming and other forms of vertical integration are being practiced, which is visible in different advertisements of agribusiness farms. Let us have a look on the changes in earlier agriculture policies of Bangladesh. Government policies including strategies and action plans related to agricultural development have been divided into four phases in a research article. During British regime, piteous support only with seeds was provided to seriously affected farmers in their adverse circumstances after natural disasters. Major change took place in the early 1950s in order to support green revolution. The supportive policies (1950s - late 1970s) was designed to provide enormous support to the farmers with all essential inputs. Subsequently, privatisation and liberalisation of inputs markets started in the late 1970s. Since the late 1990s, the agriculture policy started to introduce a collaborative development mechanism taking private sector and NGOs as partners. The National Agricultural Extension Policy (NAEP 1996) and the National Agriculture Policy (NAP 1999) in addition introduced demand-led extension service and other collaborative supports to the farmers. It has been identified in many field level researches that the on-going policy has encouraged even the land-poor farmers to engage in commercial farming. Farmers from land-rich to land-poor have become responsive, innovative and adaptive to new technology. Moreover, some agro-processing and agro-based industries have been established by the private sector entrepreneurs, which is a set objective of the NAP 1999. Considering the emerging issues and concerns in some cases with new dimension, a revised agriculture policy is drafted and is posted in the website of the Ministry of Agriculture. The draft National Agriculture Policy (NAP 2010) is a compact document with 13 sections compared to 21 sections in the NAP 1999. Moreover, specific objectives are also kept limited to four, which had been 18 in the existing policy. Remarkable change is that a business look is visible in the NAP 2010. It has incorporated strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats SWOT analysis of agriculture sector in a separate section. The SWOT is by and large used in business research. Furthermore, promoting competitiveness through commercialisation of agriculture has been set as an objective in the NAP 2010. It has also incorporated the term agribusiness eight times that is absolutely absent in the existing policy. The agribusiness is focused in section 4 (Research and development), section 5 (Agricultural extension), section 10 (Agricultural marketing), and section 11 (Women in agriculture). One article under a sub-section (4.3 Research focus and areas) states that special attention will be given to post-production technologies, high value crops, value addition, agribusiness management and trade. In the subsequent section, agribusiness is kept as a sub-section (5.8 Agri-business opportunities for private sector). Two articles of this sub-section are (i) the government will provide technological support to private entrepreneurs and farmers to undertake agri-business activities, and (ii) enabling conditions will be created to expand local and overseas markets for agribusiness opportunities. Another sub-section is added for agribusiness (10.5 Agribusiness) which states that agribusiness initiatives by farmers, traders and entrepreneurs will be facilitated and necessary support and incentive will be provided as and when deemed necessary. Moreover, an article is added under a sub-section (11.2 Participation in production and marketing) which states that the government will encourage participation of the rural poor women in production of crops particularly in agro-processing and agri-business activities so that they can improve their economic well-being. The inclusion of agribusiness is a plausible verdict of the policy makers. Final draft of the NAP 2010 has been prepared by eminent national and international experts, which would contribute much to agribusiness and to the agriculture as a whole. However, there is still a room to complement. The NAP 2010 has included agribusiness as a new component not with sufficient explanation in the introduction section. The agribusiness can be defined in a broad aspect from commercial production to end-distribution of both the agriculture inputs and products. However, its frontier is limited inside the agriculture industry. In this regard, it is necessary to enlighten the coverage of agribusiness. Meanwhile, some large-scale agro-processing farms have emerged, who mostly purchase raw materials through vertical integration. In addition, seed farms also practice contract farming. In this context, an article may be added in section 5 or section 10 to protect the vertically integrated farmers from contemptible pricing by the large-scale agribusiness farms. As the agribusiness in general is a broader term than the marketing, the section of agricultural marketing and its sub-section of agribusiness could be brought under the title of 'agricultural marketing and agribusiness'. The writer is an Asstt Prof, Department of Economics, AIUB, and can be reached at E-mail: akanda@aiub.edu
Agribusiness generally means agriculture related business that embraces the production, processing and distribution of agriculture products and the manufacture of farm machinery, agrochemicals and other supplies. The agribusiness in its primitive age was limited to the basic need-based business like selling spices for foods and supplying cotton for textiles. Capital accumulation in agriculture started with adoption of green revolution (GR) technology. The GR is called the seed-fertiliser-water technology used in farming high yielding variety (HYV) crops. Fertiliser, seed, agrochemical and farm machinery industries emerged in the mid twentieth century to supply necessary inputs for agricultural production. In the meanwhile, agro-processing and agro-based industries came in operations in the developed countries. Many large scale capital intensive agribusiness industries are now involved in supplying inputs, processing farm products and distributing food products in the world. Bangladesh agriculture has been changed from its peasant mode of operation to commercial operation at a limited extent. Farmers are now much integrated not only to input markets but also to product markets. Many of them buy rice using sale proceeds of commercial crops, which was not seen even in two decades back. In commercial agriculture, the farmers sell farm products to both the traders and firms, who process and distribute those among consumers in distant markets. Meanwhile, distant marketing of commercial crops has expanded non-institutionally. A case study has explored this type of development in a village in the mid 1980s. Moreover, agro-processing farms have started to expand since early 2000s as the processed foods has gradually become popular among young people. In recent years, contract farming and other forms of vertical integration are being practiced, which is visible in different advertisements of agribusiness farms. Let us have a look on the changes in earlier agriculture policies of Bangladesh. Government policies including strategies and action plans related to agricultural development have been divided into four phases in a research article. During British regime, piteous support only with seeds was provided to seriously affected farmers in their adverse circumstances after natural disasters. Major change took place in the early 1950s in order to support green revolution. The supportive policies (1950s - late 1970s) was designed to provide enormous support to the farmers with all essential inputs. Subsequently, privatisation and liberalisation of inputs markets started in the late 1970s. Since the late 1990s, the agriculture policy started to introduce a collaborative development mechanism taking private sector and NGOs as partners. The National Agricultural Extension Policy (NAEP 1996) and the National Agriculture Policy (NAP 1999) in addition introduced demand-led extension service and other collaborative supports to the farmers. It has been identified in many field level researches that the on-going policy has encouraged even the land-poor farmers to engage in commercial farming. Farmers from land-rich to land-poor have become responsive, innovative and adaptive to new technology. Moreover, some agro-processing and agro-based industries have been established by the private sector entrepreneurs, which is a set objective of the NAP 1999. Considering the emerging issues and concerns in some cases with new dimension, a revised agriculture policy is drafted and is posted in the website of the Ministry of Agriculture. The draft National Agriculture Policy (NAP 2010) is a compact document with 13 sections compared to 21 sections in the NAP 1999. Moreover, specific objectives are also kept limited to four, which had been 18 in the existing policy. Remarkable change is that a business look is visible in the NAP 2010. It has incorporated strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats SWOT analysis of agriculture sector in a separate section. The SWOT is by and large used in business research. Furthermore, promoting competitiveness through commercialisation of agriculture has been set as an objective in the NAP 2010. It has also incorporated the term agribusiness eight times that is absolutely absent in the existing policy. The agribusiness is focused in section 4 (Research and development), section 5 (Agricultural extension), section 10 (Agricultural marketing), and section 11 (Women in agriculture). One article under a sub-section (4.3 Research focus and areas) states that special attention will be given to post-production technologies, high value crops, value addition, agribusiness management and trade. In the subsequent section, agribusiness is kept as a sub-section (5.8 Agri-business opportunities for private sector). Two articles of this sub-section are (i) the government will provide technological support to private entrepreneurs and farmers to undertake agri-business activities, and (ii) enabling conditions will be created to expand local and overseas markets for agribusiness opportunities. Another sub-section is added for agribusiness (10.5 Agribusiness) which states that agribusiness initiatives by farmers, traders and entrepreneurs will be facilitated and necessary support and incentive will be provided as and when deemed necessary. Moreover, an article is added under a sub-section (11.2 Participation in production and marketing) which states that the government will encourage participation of the rural poor women in production of crops particularly in agro-processing and agri-business activities so that they can improve their economic well-being. The inclusion of agribusiness is a plausible verdict of the policy makers. Final draft of the NAP 2010 has been prepared by eminent national and international experts, which would contribute much to agribusiness and to the agriculture as a whole. However, there is still a room to complement. The NAP 2010 has included agribusiness as a new component not with sufficient explanation in the introduction section. The agribusiness can be defined in a broad aspect from commercial production to end-distribution of both the agriculture inputs and products. However, its frontier is limited inside the agriculture industry. In this regard, it is necessary to enlighten the coverage of agribusiness. Meanwhile, some large-scale agro-processing farms have emerged, who mostly purchase raw materials through vertical integration. In addition, seed farms also practice contract farming. In this context, an article may be added in section 5 or section 10 to protect the vertically integrated farmers from contemptible pricing by the large-scale agribusiness farms. As the agribusiness in general is a broader term than the marketing, the section of agricultural marketing and its sub-section of agribusiness could be brought under the title of 'agricultural marketing and agribusiness'. The writer is an Asstt Prof, Department of Economics, AIUB, and can be reached at E-mail: akanda@aiub.edu