The Daily New Age, 05 September 2007

Khawaza Main Uddin

The country’s striving for food security and poverty reduction may falter as a consequence of ‘diminishing marginal return’ from farming and limited livelihood opportunities the poor get in agriculture.
   Apart from expressing that apprehension, a UN-government joint report also has named a number of factors such as seasonality in food production, food price instability, social and household inequalities including gender disparity, natural and man-made disasters, and poor sanitation behind continued poverty and hunger.
   ‘Given the finite amount of land and a still-growing population, land use and crop intensity are approaching a maximum [level], severely limiting the ability of many poor people to earn a livelihood from farming,’ said the recently published ‘Meeting the Challenge: A Mid-term Report on Achieving MDG-1 in Bangladesh’.
   The report finds ‘deteriorating terms of trade’ for farmers owing to high input prices and an imperfect market structure dominated by middlemen causing decrease in agriculture’s contribution to the gross domestic product, despite manifold increases in farm output.
   The share of agriculture in GDP, as mentioned in the report, declined from 30.4 per cent in 1991 to 20.1 in 2005. The sector still employs more than 50 per cent of the country’s labour force.
   The report stresses the need for new investments and innovations in the agriculture sector to boost productivity for removing hunger and poverty as well as promotion of new thrust sectors to sustain the progress so far achieved towards the first UN Millennium Development Goal of halving poverty by 2015.
   Bangladesh has reduced the percentage of people living below the poverty line, or the daily income of $1, from 58.8 in 1991 to 40 while the national target in conformity with the UN goal is to bring it down to 29.4.
   According to the report, faltering economic performance, growing population density, climate change, and exclusion from demographic and social changes are among the major reasons for the concern that the current rate of progress in reducing extreme poverty may not be sustained.
   ‘The extreme poor rely on government social protection programmes, family support or charity to survive,’ the report says, adding that no more than 10 per cent people eligible for government assistance receive it.
   Another formidable challenge to Bangladesh’s poverty reduction efforts is said to be the adverse consequence of the global warming since one-fifth of the country’s landmass may go under water, if the sea level rises by just one metre, causing massive displacements and reducing rice production by around 30 per cent.
   The report further acknowledges that poverty continues to prevent many children from the poorest and vulnerable groups from accessing ‘free’ education opportunities due to ‘many direct costs involved.’
   It points out that temporary labour migration — primarily to Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries —also has contributed significantly to increasing household income and reducing poverty. ‘Any adverse shock — global, political or economic instability — could seriously undermine the gains in poverty reduction,’ it warns.
   The foreign affairs adviser, Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, presented the executive summary of the report at the annual ministerial review meeting of the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations on ‘Strengthening efforts to eradicate poverty and hunger, including through the global partnership for development’ in Geneva in July. Its in-depth version was published recently by the United Nations Development Programme.
   Iftekhar quoted the Johannesburg Declaration of World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002 as saying that the countries of origin of temporary labour migration such as Bangladesh would enjoy a return of $160 to $200 billion if the European Union, Canada, Japan, and the United States allowed migrants to make up 4 per cent of their labour force.

Shantimoy Chakma, Rangamati, The Daily Star, 03 March 2008

“Only God knows what we will eat after a week. The Tk 1000 given by the government will provide for only seven days’ food,” said Samor Singh Chakma, an indigenous farmer while receiving the relief money at Thegamukh, a frontier village in Barkal upazila in Tangamati district.

“We have nothing to survive as most of the crops including paddy have been eaten up by rats this year”, he said.

The government relief is too scanty as there will not be any food crop in the hills in coming months, said Gayana Ranjan Chakma and Bhottya Chakma.

They are a few of the scores of victims of the rat invasion in Barkal and other areas in Rangamati and two other hill disticts.

The loss of crops to rat invasion followed a massive flowering and fruiting of bamboo clusters this year.

The CHT affairs ministry has allocated Tk 7 lakh to face the food crisis in Rangamati. Of the amount, Tk 5 lakh were distributed by Rangamati Hill District Council (RHDC) to 453 families in Hupbang, Thegamukh and Kukichhara in Borahorina union. The rest Tk 2 lakh has been allocated for affected people in Sazek union in Baghiachhari.

Each affected family got Tk 1,000.

RHDC chairman Jagat Jyoti Chakma, its member Bihari Ranjan Chakma, along with local Union Parishad (UP) chairmen and members and law enforcers distributed the relief in last few days.

Many affected families are still out of relief programmes in different areas.

Sources said only about fifty percent of the hill people could be covered under the current programme taken up by the government in Rangamati. The rest will remain out of food security, they said.

The government’s special relief programme in Rangamati covers Sazek in Baghaichhari, Hupbang in Barkal and Borthalipara in Bilaichhari upazila. Other parts of hilly areas in Rangamati, Bandarban and Khagrachhari are still out of the food safety net.

As a preliminary step, UNDP is distributing 20 kilograms of rice, edible oil, one kg of salt and a rat killing tool to each family in some areas.

The Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) are training farmers in rat killing, said its official Kajal Kanti Talukder.

Talking to this correspondent, Borahorina UP chairman Binoy Krinchna Chakma said, “I can give only some quantity of rice under VGF (vulnerable group feeding) and VGD programmes. But it is very limited.

“After finishing paddy, swarms of rats are now eating banana, ginger, turmeric and other fruits and crops,” said Pulin Karbari of Thegamukh.

Many families in different areas of Barkal upazila left homes in search of livelihood, he said.

About 35,000 families in inaccessible Sazek union under Baghaichhari upazila of Rangamati district are in utmost food crisis. A famine like situation is prevailing there, the village headman said.

At least 200 families in Sazek union left their homes for Mizoram and Tripura of India in search of livelihood, local public representatives told The Daily Star correspondent.

About 35,000 families of five ethnic communities– Chakma, Tripura, Pankhua, Lusai and Riyanglive in 607 square kilometers area in Sazek union. Cultivation and collecting bamboo from forests are their main sources of survival.

Earlier, the ministry of CHT affairs allocated Tk 15 lakh for the three hill districts, which has already been distributed among affected farmers.

RHDC executive officer Tarun Kanti Ghosh said a decision has been taken to allocate 700 metric tones (MT) of food grains for food for work programme in Rangamati. Of this, 300 MT will be distributed in Sazek, 200 in Bilaichhari, 150 in Barkal and 50 in Jurachhari upazila. Other development schemes are also on cards, he said.

Jagat Jyoti Chakma said RHDC along with UNDP will conduct a survey soon to assess the exact number of affected families. World Food Program (WFP) is also contemplating resuming RMP (road maintenance project) projects as a long term assistance program for the affected people.

“We also submitted two projects to CHT affairs ministry. One is raising mixed fruit gardens and the other is goat rearing project,” he added.