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ACROSS THE COUNTRY

It is one step forward, two steps back for Homna

Mohammad Amjad Hossain
Homna was declared an up-azlla in the 80s and has now been reverted to the thana ft was of Comilla dfstrict. Located 40 miles from Comilla town, Homna is also connected by road and river with the capital city Dhaka. But one would be well-advised not to try to reach the place directly from Dhaka. A life-time's Journey It would prove.
Homna, which is spread over 64.5 square miles comprising ten unions and 206 villages, lacks the glamour and prosperity that Comilla enjoys. Comilla became known in the world because of unprecedented success stories of the ■cooperative system and agricultural development in mid 60s as a result of the experiments parried out by Akhtar Hameed Khan. Before that Comilla had long enjoyed an enviable cultural eminence in the subcontinent. Ustad Alauddin' Khan. Sursagar Himangshu Dutta and the incomparable singer-music dt-rector S D Burman and artists like. Shila Devi all hailed from Comilla.
It is sad to note that the effects of the Comilla model did not evoke enthusiasm at Homna where all cooperatives either in the agriculture or the handloom sector remained inactive. Cooperatives are there only to receive loans from the bank.
But lately Homna. with a population of 2,50,000. is making progress in respect of communication and education. The government is attaching priority to the communication sector, which was neglected in the past. The government of
Japan is assfsting in building road communication and primary schools under rural development project.
Homna is rated one of the highest producers of chillies in Bangladesh but agriculturists are concerned because of the fall of price of chilli in the local market. The same concern is expressed by the farmers about the decline in price of paddy and increase in the price of fertilizer. They are contemplating switching over to the cultivation of other, profitable agricultural produces. It may be noted that Homna produced a bumper crop this year which makes Homna surplus in foodgrains.1
. However, farmers are apprehensive of a substantial fall in the production of rice next year as a result of increase in price of fertilizers.-In contrast to the agricultural setting of the poor Third World, specially Bangladesh, the government of the country agriculturally richest In the world — the United States — continues to provide farm subsidy to the growers.
In the education sector, there are two colleges, but the literacy rate lags far behind the national figure at 14.71%.
One success story at Homna relates to the scheme: loan for landless of Agrani Bank on the pattern of Grameen Bank. The response of the landless peasants is encouraging and there appears to be no one defaulting on repayment. This again, after the Grameen Bank experience, clearly indicates that it is the poor people that arc really creditworthy.