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Food grain: ’Beg, buy or borrow’

Husain Imam
THE year 2008 brings no good news for the people of Bangladesh. On the very first day of the year, the price of rice went up by Taka 5 a kilo. The prediction is that, rice, now selling at Taka 32-40 a kilo (up by 67 percent in the last one year), is going to be even costlier in the days ahead because of sharp decline in production of rice at home and abroad and increase of price in the international market
Production at home has suffered a serious set back because of two i successive floods and a devastating cyclone, on top of the perennial crises of electricity, diesel and fertiliser. resulting in a food deficit to the tune of 35 to 40 lac tons, which have to be imported. According to available reports, the country has, at the moment, a reserve stock of only about 4.5 lac tons of food grains, whereas it should have been at least 7.5 lac tons. Nobody seems to be sure about our present stock, further requirement, and what is in the supply pipeline
What we know for sure is that production in the rice or wheatexporting countries also registered a sharp decline last year due to extreme weather. India, the biggest supplier of food grain to Bangladesh has stopped exporting rice to cater for its home demand. Decline in production of food grain coupled with increased cost of transportation because of record high fuel price will make it all the more diffi- cult for Bangladesh to find enough cereal for import, not to mention about the increased cost she has to bear.
Food adviser Tapan Choudhury may not be able get away by simply asking the people to accept the hard reality or by pointing to India for their enhancement of export price of rice. The government has to procure food at whatever cost it may require and feed the people, at least
a quarter of the country's population, through VGF, FWP and/or similar other programs, and as many through QMS at a fair price for quite some time. Beg, buy or borrow, but food has to be procured urgently, at least that is the prescription of former agricultural minister and Awami League presidium member Matia Choudhury
At the same time, the government has to mobilise all its
resources to increase production of food grain, and ensure adequate and timely supply of seed, fuel, fertiliser and bank loan to the farmers at subsidised rates. That is the hard reality. It must be remembered that the government's management of the agricultural sector, especially the management of fertiliser procurement and distribution, in the last year has been far from satisfactory.
There have been comments that the caretaker government has been slow id responding to the food situation. It should have gone for a massive food grain procurement program from outside sources at least six months ago. Even if we go by the latest example, it is now more than a month that the Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherji visited Bangladesh in the wake of Cyclone Sidr and offered sale of 5 lac tons of rice to Bangladesh as a gesture of goodwill, and sympathy for the cyclone stricken people of this country.
If the newspaper reports are correct, it was only last week that the government of Bangladesh has sent a team to Delhi to sort out the purchase deal. Whatever may be the reasons, by not being able to take timely action regarding procurement of food grain, they are now burdened with more problems and challenges than they could probably think of.
So the year 2008 may not go as smooth as the caretaker government of Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed would have liked it to. It has to face challenges from all fronts - economic, social, political and diplomatic. It has to procure 15 to 20 lac tons food grains from outside markets in the next four to six months to avoid famine, contain inflation, which is continuously on the rise, bring down the sky rocketing prices of essential goods to an acceptable level and, at the same time, complete, as promised, all that is required to be done to hold a free, fair and credible national election before the year ends.
No sensible person can think that a non-political, caretaker government of the type we have, installed primarily to hold a national election and hand over power to an elected government, should be able to handle the situation as it stands now all on its own. Those who are now in the advisory council or at the helm of affairs of the government are undeniably persons of high esteem, with sufficient knowledge and experience in their respective professional fields. There can be no question about their sincerity, integrity and devotion to duties either. But the fact is that neither are they politicians nor do they have experience in running a government.
It is, however, heartening to see that our army chief General Moeen U Ahmed has quickly realised the gravity of the situation and asked people from all walks of life, including the politicians, to join hands in their efforts to cope with the crisis.
The fact remains that the government needs cooperation from all quarters, more so from the political parties, to handle the situation. The fact remains that they have to open dialogues with the political parties if they really mean business, and sooner they do, the better it will be.
Capt Husain Imam is a freelance contributor to The Daily Star