Govt. to act promptly for saving jute
Tuesday, 14 October 2008
JUTE was once known as the Golden Fibre of Bangladesh, because it earned a lot of hard currency for the country. It was, in fact, the main foreign exchange earner for the country. The cash-strapped farmers, who grew jute, did also look forward to the season when they would get some hard cash by selling their dried up jute fibres in the market. The main consumers of the raw jute sold in the market were the local jute mills humming with activity all the year round producing Hessian cloth for gunny bags, rope, carpet-backing and so on. At that time, jute, particularly the jute mills, absorbed the major portion of skilled and unskilled workforce of the country.
But jute has meanwhile lost its past glory. A complex mix of factors have led to such plight of jute in the post-liberation period that include massive corruption and wholesale plundering of the jute mills in the name of their nationalisation, fall in international demand for this packing material of natural origin and wrong policy of the then governments to protect this cash crop of the country. In the mean time, the government disposed of a large number of these jute mills including the biggest one as those turned out to be a constant drain on the state exchequer. In the end, the volume of seasonal buying and selling of jute also dropped significantly in the local markets. As a consequence, the farmers lost their interest in growing jute. Other inhibitive factors that added fuel to the fire include scarcity of water for retting jute bark, non-availability of quality seeds and unfavourable weather condition that forced the farmers to change their cropping pattern and exclude jute from the list of their priorities. So, now jute and all the economic activities centred on this cash crop are facing difficult times.
Piling on the agony that jute has already been going through, the erstwhile golden fibre has come up against further difficulties this fiscal year with a sharp fall in its production. The situation has triggered a chain reaction in the market. With an estimated 15 per cent fall in jute production this fiscal compared to that of the past year, it can no more meet the demand of the balers, the millers, the exporters and the producers of various jute-based goods. Naturally, the price of jute has shot up in the market thereby increasing the production cost of jute goods. This is a vicious loop that would end up forcing the still existing jute mills and the exporters of jute and jute goods to drastically cut their production and export targets. Other users of jute, producing various articles from this natural fibre, will also have to follow suit.
So, the crisis in the jute sector has further deepened and there is the risk that the ongoing trend may take an irreversible turn, unless the government takes some urgent measures to put a brake on the constant downward slide of jute. To stop the rot, the first thing the government must do is to restore the farmers' confidence in jute by providing necessary patronages in order to encourage them to grow more jute in their fields. As noted earlier, they have to be supplied with adequate quantities of quality seeds, reservoirs to submerge cut-down green jute plants for rotting as well as necessary technical and financial supports during the cropping season. The government will have to act prudently and fast to save jute, the industry and business that thrive on this raw material and hundreds of thousands of families that make a living out of this natural fibre.
But jute has meanwhile lost its past glory. A complex mix of factors have led to such plight of jute in the post-liberation period that include massive corruption and wholesale plundering of the jute mills in the name of their nationalisation, fall in international demand for this packing material of natural origin and wrong policy of the then governments to protect this cash crop of the country. In the mean time, the government disposed of a large number of these jute mills including the biggest one as those turned out to be a constant drain on the state exchequer. In the end, the volume of seasonal buying and selling of jute also dropped significantly in the local markets. As a consequence, the farmers lost their interest in growing jute. Other inhibitive factors that added fuel to the fire include scarcity of water for retting jute bark, non-availability of quality seeds and unfavourable weather condition that forced the farmers to change their cropping pattern and exclude jute from the list of their priorities. So, now jute and all the economic activities centred on this cash crop are facing difficult times.
Piling on the agony that jute has already been going through, the erstwhile golden fibre has come up against further difficulties this fiscal year with a sharp fall in its production. The situation has triggered a chain reaction in the market. With an estimated 15 per cent fall in jute production this fiscal compared to that of the past year, it can no more meet the demand of the balers, the millers, the exporters and the producers of various jute-based goods. Naturally, the price of jute has shot up in the market thereby increasing the production cost of jute goods. This is a vicious loop that would end up forcing the still existing jute mills and the exporters of jute and jute goods to drastically cut their production and export targets. Other users of jute, producing various articles from this natural fibre, will also have to follow suit.
So, the crisis in the jute sector has further deepened and there is the risk that the ongoing trend may take an irreversible turn, unless the government takes some urgent measures to put a brake on the constant downward slide of jute. To stop the rot, the first thing the government must do is to restore the farmers' confidence in jute by providing necessary patronages in order to encourage them to grow more jute in their fields. As noted earlier, they have to be supplied with adequate quantities of quality seeds, reservoirs to submerge cut-down green jute plants for rotting as well as necessary technical and financial supports during the cropping season. The government will have to act prudently and fast to save jute, the industry and business that thrive on this raw material and hundreds of thousands of families that make a living out of this natural fibre.