The importance of plants in our life can hardly be overemphasized. People depend on plants to meet their basic needs like food, clothing, shelter, and health care. These needs are multiplying because of a growing population, increasing incomes, and urbanization.
Plants not only provide food, they also feed the livestock which is then consumed itself. In addition, plants provide timber and raw materials for many types of pharmaceuticals, as well as tobacco, coffee, alcohol, and other drugs. Approximately 2.5 billion people in the world still rely on subsistence farming to satisfy their basic needs, while the rest are tied into increasingly complex production and distribution systems to provide food, timber, fuel, and other plant-derived commodities.
In Bangladesh, trees are fast disappearing to make way for indiscriminate and unplanned massive urbanization. The land area of the country is too small compared to its population. Income has also been increasing rapidly throughout most of the world at the same time. As income grows, plants become more valuable because people want to buy more and higher-quality products to satisfy basic needs. Plant blindness is the inability to see or notice the plants in one's own environment. The inability to recognize the importance of plants in the biosphere, and in human affairs, leads to the erroneous conclusion that they are unworthy of human consideration.
A recent survey conducted by Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) reveals that on average of 167.4 million cubic feet of wood, worth about Tk.64.07 billion, is annually produced in the country. More than 1.0 million bamboos are also produced annually which is worth Tk.23.07 billion. Rural families chop bamboos from bamboo bushes and sell those in the market at times to meet family requirement.
In this sense, bamboo bushes are a kind of insurance for rural families. Plants are mainly used as fuel by rural households. According to BBS, about 5.2 million tons of fuel woods are produced in the country per year which is worth Tk.46.50 billions. People in rural areas spend more in terms of fuel than their urban counterparts where the urban households use gas as fuel which is another major cause of disparity between towns and villages.
Bangladesh saves substantially in terms of imports due to its reliance on traditional fuel. Otherwise we would have to import huge volume of kerosene from outside to fill the void. BBS survey further revealed that 1552 tons of rubber worth about Tk.55 millions is produced in the country every year. Production would have been higher if better utilization of land leased out for rubber plantation, could be ensured. In addition, there is a value addition of Tk.123.90 billion from backyard plantations by households.
In this way about 2.06 million of households of the country are enriching the economy through tree plantations. Each household plants different variety of trees on a minimum of 5.0 decimal land space each. Wood, fuel wood and rubber are mainly produced from trees and plants and each household contributes to GDP (gross domestic product) by marketing them. Nearly 54 per cent of trees are planted around homesteads. Hundreds of nurseries have developed out of people's interest in tree plantation. For many families, these nurseries have become the main source of income. But we have not been able to fully utilize the potential of household plantation.
About 2.0 million households are associated with tree plantations. Considering that each household consists of five members, about 12.5 million people are dependent on tree plantation, either fully or partly, which constitutes only a small fraction of a population of 160 million people. It is the responsibility of the state to provide assistance to increase the number of people engaged in tree plantation and create awareness thereof. Utility of plants and trees is not just limited to wood or fuel wood, plants control air pollution and add to the beauty of nature. Fruits are also available from trees. Pharmaceutical plants help cure diseases. Evidently, although plants and trees have multiple benefits, we have not been able to capitalize on one tenth or even less of the potential.
Assuming that 1000 trees are planted every year and that the same number of trees are chopped each year, production will remain the same after every 20 years and stock of trees is also retained in equal quantities. If this formula is followed by all, there will never be deficit of trees in Bangladesh. But this is not always possible due to situations of unemployment, sickness, children's wedding, house repair and things like that for poor households when one is compelled to chop trees to meet the above costs. The economists will have to think about a pragmatic solution to this problem.
The possibility of insurance against hypothecation of trees or introduction of plant preservation insurance should be explored. Crop insurance is in practice in many countries of the world. In conclusion, more trees will have to be planted to accelerate poverty alleviation, maintain ecological balance and protect people from various diseases.
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