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For food autarky

Bangladesh has no other way but to go all out for increasing food production at optimum level to evade the threat of global hunger. The farmers must be motivated enough to keep themselves fully engaged in food production and the government agencies must be sincere to support them with stable supplies off seeds, credit, fertilizer, and power for irrigation. Side by side, the conversion of arable lands for other uses must be stopped by enacting proper laws.
Bangladesh is expecting a bumper boro harvest this year, and the government is hoping that this bumper crop production would somehow relieve them of the economic and political crisis. The government has set a target to procure twelve lakh tons of rice and three lakh tons of paddy at the rate of Tk 28 and Tk 18 per kg respectively in this crop season to build up a food buffer stock. The government has planned to deploy all of its resources and gear up all relevant agencies under its control to make the boro procurement drive a success.
But the economists of the country have said a bumper boro harvest will only be a temporary respiteand the government needs to take a concrete policy to attain food autarky to shield local market from global food price vitality.
Let us look to the Philippines, where the government is spending an additional $36.12 million on higher yielding rice varieties and is implementing measures to avoid a shortage of the staple cereal. It has also allocated an additional 1.5 billion pesos to buy higher yielding rice seeds to be distributed during the coun-try's rainy season to increase rice production. The Philippines has also announced a ban on converting farmland to other uses in the latest government move to cut import of rice.
A landmark UN sponsored report said on April 15 that the world would face social upheaval and environmental disaster if agriculture is not really reformed to better serve the poor and hungry. The warning in the report, which was compiled by about 400 experts of International Assessment of Agricultural science and Technology for Development, comes amid growing discontent among the world's poorest people over rising of food prices.
The report commissioned by the World Bank and FAO and considered by sixty-four governments at an international plenary in Johannesburg, stressed that agriculture as it is practiced today, is the source of deep inequalities and that the number of malnourished people world wide is continuing to grow.
While addressing the Global Agro-lndustries Forum recently, the Indian prime minister Dr. Manmohan Singh said that agriculture in India is not just a food producing mechanism, but
is the backbone of the livelihood security for about two thirds of its population.
The Indian government has launched a good number of programs, including the Rashtrlya Krishi Bikas for Rs. 25,000 crore, Food Security Mission for Rs. 5,000 crore and Horticulture Mission for Rs. 20,000 crore to promote agricultural growth and safeguard food security.
The small farm management revolution in China, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea has combined technologies of "mass production” and “production by masses" and stimulated farmers with marginal and small holdings to work for their income security in the rural areas and food security for the nation.
Bangladesh could turn into a food surplus country, provided the government ensures supply of quality seeds, fertiliser, diesel, and electricity to farmers in time. The government has to disseminate validated agricultural information to farmers and make sure that those are updated with latest technologies to get the best harvest and protect crops from any diseases.
These were the eloquent views of successful farmers who par-
ticipated at a workshop in the city on April 21, jointly organised by the Directorate of Agriculture Extension and some other government and private agencies.
The food production of the country, both rice and wheat, was only 100.46 lakh tons in the year 1971-72. Bangladesh attained self-sufficiency in food production in 1999-2000 when the country's gross production in rice and wheat reached at 249 lakh tons. The food grain production reached at nearly 268 lakh tons in 2000-2001, which was country's highest food production since independence. But the increasing trend of food production could not be sustained.
The total food production of the country rose to around 260 lakh tons in the year 2001-02. But the country had to import 20 lakh tons of food grain as the consumption of food grain increased. Of the total consumption, nearly 267 lakh tons of rice and other food grains were produced in the country and some 32 lakh tons of food grains were imported.
According to a government calculation, the country needs 255 lakh tons in 2007-08 for the population of 140 million, taking 495.04 grams per capita per day intake of food grains. The government has set the food production target at 254 lakh tons for this fiscal year. The country will require importing nearly 3.5 million tons food grains in 2008 following a big output shortfall due to floods and cyclone.
In the context of global food crisis, food autarky has gained paramount importance for the country In order to ensure survival of the poorer section of people. But due to lack of proper policies In the agricultural sector, the country could not attain food autarky. We did not even stress enough to strive towards a reasonable degree of food security.
According to Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, diminution of the country's arable land is seriously hampering the government’s initiatives to ensure food autarky. There was approximately 202,000 acres of cultivable land in the country in 1983 and has decreased to 143,000 acres in the beginning of 2008. In other words, the amount of cultivable land has decreased by 60 lakh acres during the last 25 years and the country will lose one-fourth of its cultivable lands by 2020 if it is not checked.
The quantity of arable land is diminishing because of unplanned construction of residential and commercial areas, shopping malls, educational institutions, industries, roads and highways.
The news which is really alarming for the nation is that, every day nearly 235 hectares of arable lands are being lost in the country and more than two lakh
new babies are being added every day to our overwhelming population of 15crore.
All the government initiatives for food autarky will go in vain as the total food production is lagging behind the country's increased demand for food, as a result of rapid population growth in one hand and the quantity of arable lands are in decrease on the other hand.
Another cruel reality is that only few rich farmers, who have surplus saleable rice, get the benefit of soaring rice price. Out of three crore farmers in the country, only 15% have more or less surplus rice to sell after harvest. A vast majority of famers are compelled to sell most of their rice just after harvest to repay the debts and depend on the market to buy their food at higher price. The government should formulate some policies to protect the interest of these victims among the farming community.
Bangladesh has no other way but to go all out for increasing food production at optimum level to evade the threat of global hunger. The farmers must be motivated enough to keep themselves fully engaged in food production and the government agencies must be sincere to support them with stable supplies of seeds, credit, fertilizer, and power for irrigation. Side by side, the conversion of arable lands for other uses must be stopped by enacting proper laws.
AN M Nurul Haque is a columnist of The Daily Star