Helping out the Sidr-hit farmers
Wednesday, 19 December 2007
The government with the support of the armed forces has so far done a commendable job in providing relief to the victims of cyclone Sidr. The emergency succour provided in the form of relief to the people dislocated by the cyclone has helped them only to survive for the time being. But meeting emergency is not the whole story in the life of a person living on farming or any other kind of vocation in the cyclone-hit areas. The government's intervention, as promised, is crucial at this stage. Assistance in the form of hard cash, seeds for the winter crops, fertilisers, pesticides, irrigation facilities, to mention but a few of the wants, would be the needs clamouring for immediate attention at the moment. And mitigating the dire needs of the farmers in the in the south-western districts calls for allocating a huge amount of resources from the government.
The cyclone has not only inflicted physical damage to the victims' life and properties. It has also destroyed the standing crops on 600,000 hectares of land in the 30 affected districts. The loss of crop, especially aman rice, is estimated to be 800, 000 tonnes. But what is the actual preparation of the government to help out these farmers so that they may now return to their fields to cultivate boro rice and other winter crops?
The ministry of finance has sanctioned only Tk.460 million for the farmers, though the actual requirement is around Tk.662.80 million for the rehabilitation of agriculture in all the 30 cyclone-ravaged districts. Reduction of fund has forced the agriculture ministry to cut down to 13 the number of districts to be covered by the rehabilitation programme. But the allocated amount of fund is also not forthcoming in its entirety at the moment. So far, only Tk.360 million has been released by the finance ministry.
In the face of this fund crunch, options before the implementers of the rehabilitation programme are few. Contingent upon the availability of the fund, the ministry of agriculture is learnt to have decided to carry out the rehabilitation work in phases. For example, some 30, 000 hectares of land under 11 districts would come under this phase of the rehabilitation activity where the worst affected boro farmers would get free supply of seeds and fertilisers for three bighas of land each. Others will get similar help for one bigha of land. The size of farmland to be covered under this assistance package will come down to only three decimals for the affected farmers in the 13 districts selected for rehabilitation with the slashed fund.
How does the government hope to bail out the cyclone-hit farmers with such measures for rehabilitation? But the rehabilitation programme should not also be looked upon as a pure altruistic act of generosity towards the affected farmers either. For unless the farmers are supplied with the critical farm inputs within the soonest possible time, the prospect of bridging the prevailing food gap will become bleaker. If the production of boro paddy and other winter crops suffers for want of necessary inputs, the farmers will remain incapacitated in the next season, too. The food gap will widen further and condition of the farmers will become worse.
However, amid these not-so-comforting developments, some heartening pieces of news are also coming. The central bank governor is reported to have instructed the nationalised commercial banks (NCBs) to fund the rehabilitation work for the Sidr-hit farmers from their surplus liquidity and farm credit provisions and have also assured them of removing the existing bottlenecks for the purpose. Assurances notwithstanding, what is most urgent at the moment is to mount an aggressive and concerted effort by the government to rescue the cyclone-hit farmers with generous assistance, so that they may make the most of this boro and winter crop season.
The cyclone has not only inflicted physical damage to the victims' life and properties. It has also destroyed the standing crops on 600,000 hectares of land in the 30 affected districts. The loss of crop, especially aman rice, is estimated to be 800, 000 tonnes. But what is the actual preparation of the government to help out these farmers so that they may now return to their fields to cultivate boro rice and other winter crops?
The ministry of finance has sanctioned only Tk.460 million for the farmers, though the actual requirement is around Tk.662.80 million for the rehabilitation of agriculture in all the 30 cyclone-ravaged districts. Reduction of fund has forced the agriculture ministry to cut down to 13 the number of districts to be covered by the rehabilitation programme. But the allocated amount of fund is also not forthcoming in its entirety at the moment. So far, only Tk.360 million has been released by the finance ministry.
In the face of this fund crunch, options before the implementers of the rehabilitation programme are few. Contingent upon the availability of the fund, the ministry of agriculture is learnt to have decided to carry out the rehabilitation work in phases. For example, some 30, 000 hectares of land under 11 districts would come under this phase of the rehabilitation activity where the worst affected boro farmers would get free supply of seeds and fertilisers for three bighas of land each. Others will get similar help for one bigha of land. The size of farmland to be covered under this assistance package will come down to only three decimals for the affected farmers in the 13 districts selected for rehabilitation with the slashed fund.
How does the government hope to bail out the cyclone-hit farmers with such measures for rehabilitation? But the rehabilitation programme should not also be looked upon as a pure altruistic act of generosity towards the affected farmers either. For unless the farmers are supplied with the critical farm inputs within the soonest possible time, the prospect of bridging the prevailing food gap will become bleaker. If the production of boro paddy and other winter crops suffers for want of necessary inputs, the farmers will remain incapacitated in the next season, too. The food gap will widen further and condition of the farmers will become worse.
However, amid these not-so-comforting developments, some heartening pieces of news are also coming. The central bank governor is reported to have instructed the nationalised commercial banks (NCBs) to fund the rehabilitation work for the Sidr-hit farmers from their surplus liquidity and farm credit provisions and have also assured them of removing the existing bottlenecks for the purpose. Assurances notwithstanding, what is most urgent at the moment is to mount an aggressive and concerted effort by the government to rescue the cyclone-hit farmers with generous assistance, so that they may make the most of this boro and winter crop season.