by Dr Md Ayubur Rahman

We have to remember that jute has a brighter future in view of the global environment awareness and we should exploit all possible means to protect our 'golden fibre.'

DURING the period of Pakistan. jute was our main economic stay and used to be called the Golden Fibre. A big disappointment and unhappy feeling was in the mind of the then East Pakistanis that we were deprived of the huge foreign exchange earned from jute as its 90 per cent was used to be spent for the development of West Pakistan. In reply to a question of a newsman Bangabandhu in early 1971 said that we could survive happily as a dignified nation with the export earnings from jute which were more than 400 crore taka per annum.

After we became independent we were seriously concerned as to how to sustain the Income from Jute sector with inroads of synthetic competing jute and jute products in the international market. Jute producing countries together felt the need of a forum which could help strengthen the position of jute and jute products in the international market. It took quite a long time to have a consensus first among the five jute producing countries namely Bangladesh. India, China. Thailand and Nepal. There was a genuine feeling that an intentional organisation couldn't be formed with these five countries only and therefore consultations with the jute consumer countries were made. Perhaps the representatives of the jute producing countries involved in the consultation were not aware of the other bast fibre producing countries of North America, Philippines. Egypt and some other African countries. Eventually. the International Jute Organisation (IJO) was formed in 1984 with these five jute producing countries and member countries of EEC. America. Australia. Japan. Pakistan. Indonesia etc haring a 50-50 voting right and financial responsibility shared equally by the producer and consumer countries.

Bangladesh being the biggest exporter took major leadership with a 25 per cent voting right

and financial responsibility. It was very unfortunate on the part of Bangladesh that it did not understand what the future impact of this organisation would be where each group had different objectives. The producers always want that their products should have a higher market price while the consumers always want to purchase these commodities at a lower price. With such conflicts of interest an organisation can never survive successfully.

,The IJO's main goal was to carry out research in the field of jute agriculture, that is to increase jute production per unit area, to discover the techniques of using the jute fibre in diversified areas and to devise ways of improving the market. Although the organisation's basic function was to carry out research, the IJO was headed all-these years by persons without any knowledge of agriculture or industrial research. Right from day one up till now. the beads of the organisation have been hardly aware of their responsibilities to groom and develop the organisation. It is ironical, that the bureaucrats heading the-'organisation have most of the time hired employees with qualifications and experiences far bellow the requirement of the organisation. Consequently, this organisation has never been able to meet the requirement of the producing or consuming countries.

IJO, during the period from 1984 to 1997 has implemented 16 projects on agriculture at a cost of US dollar 76.83,700 and 11 industrial projects at a cost of US dollar 44,24,564 and 15 projects on market promotion at a cost of US dollar 30.46,300 without achieving any mentionable result. For example, not even a single new variety of

jute was possible to be evolved □y implementing a germplasm project at a cost of over 2 million dollars in the agriculture sector. In the Industry sector an enzyme protect that was given a lot of publicity on television and in other media was a failure. About half a dozen ministers had been invited many times and were given wrong impressions on its prospect and its potential to improve the quality of Jute fibre. The fact is that the project has been abandoned and as per agreement, the Islam Jute Mills refused to accept the enzyme plant, which was established on its campus, as it would not be profitable. Thus IJO can't claim a single contribution for the benefit of any consumer or producer countries.

The head of the organisation seemed to have no required knowledge or experience to take up any activity beneficial to achieving the goal of the organisation. As a result, countries like America. Australia. India. Pakistan. China and lastly Thailand etc. have withdrawn their memberships clearly stating that the cost of running the organisation far outweighed the benefit from it. Bangladesh has spent more than 25 per cent of the total revenue expenditure of the organisation without getting any benefit.

Since 1996, the causes of failure of the organisation were expressed in different newspapers and the attention of the government was drawn to it. During the period of the last Executive Director. America, Australia. India and Pakistan withdrew from this organisation. The causes of his failure was ventilated in different dailies, but our government for unknown reasons has never taken up this matter even at the

Cabinet level. Because of the existence of this organisation our jute sector has suffered significantly for various reasons namely —

a) It has not been possible to get external financial assistance for research and development of Jute bilaterally and Bangladesh Jute Research Institute nas not been able to take up appropriate research projects for the improvement of jute products and utilisation for want of basic research facilities.

b) With the ever-Increasing environmental awareness all over the world and lute being environment friendly, there was an enormous opportunity to extend the use of jute in making new products and increase sale of our jute goods in the international market.

c) Since 1975. the price of different Jute products in the international market remained almost the same in terms of dollar value. Therefore, international price of jute remained depressed and the farmer was forced to sell his jute at a very law price. This has been very harmful to our economy. One of the most important goals of (he IJO is to carry out market promotion activity thereby bringing some benefit for the producer countries. But although there has been 27 council meetings of the IJO since :ts inception, not even in a single council meeting was an agenda on price of Jute ever put up. The simple reason was that the Executive Director being from producer countries all the time, was afraid to take up such an agenda which could go against the interest of the consumer countries and as such, could lose his job since he couldn't remain in position without having a 2/3rd majority vote of

both the producer and consumer countries. This has caused great harm to Bangladesh in the field of growth and development of jute andjute products.

The IJO with the withdrawal of all these member countries is virtually dead now and perhaps will be required to shut down immediately. With that in the offing. I would still like to make some suggestions, which may be helpful in favour of keeping an international body for looking after the improvement of jute and other bast fibres.

1. An international organisation not only for jute but also for other bast fibre crops like Kenaf. Mesta. Rammie and Sissals etc may be formed in consultation with all the producing countries following the similar procedure adopted for the formation of IJO. The name of such an organisation may be fiven. say. International Bast ibre Organisation — IBFO.

2. All the international, donors will be requested to channel financial assistance they want to provide for these fibre crops through this forum.

3. A moderate revenue budget may be fixed with the subscription from the member countries and the development project will be taken up with the financial assistance received from the international agencies.

4. The Ministry of Jute. Government of Bangladesh can initiate a proposal on the above guidelines, if so desired.

5. If the Government became serious to sustain the growth and development of jute and agreed with the broad guideline suggested above, the details of the operations could be worked out. We have to remember that jute has a brighter future in view of the global environment awareness and we should exploit all possible means to protect our 'golden fibre.'

The author is the former Director General, Bangladesh Jute Research Institute and Department of Agricultural Extension.