Mr. Farid of Chattogram a migrant employee in the area of Alkhor, Qatar migrated there in 2001 as a laborer in search of fortune. And like other expatriate workers, he was working abroad by sweating in a Qatar sheikh’s company for long 10 years. One day when he saw a small piece of fallow land next to his organization, he thought, ‘What kind of crop can be cultivated in this land!’ He proposed to grow crops in this land. The people around him laughed, ‘Hey, will this rocky land produce crops!’ But Farid was adamant in his decision. He started farming by leasing the land from the owner of the company at a nominal price. Farid thought he would find soil under the sand. He got the soil by digging with a spade but there were a lot of slate stones in the soil. It was difficult to remove slate and stones from the ground. Maybe the job would have been easier if the plow is used. He made something like a plow with a piece of metal.
Farid doesn’t know much about education, he doesn’t know foreign languages; only with concentration, dedication and hard work, Bangladeshi workers like Farid are making wonderful success in different countries of the world in farming. Farid continued to increase the amount of leased land the following year. His brother from the country took his relatives to him and created employment there. He started commercial agriculture in full swing and became an entrepreneur.
Thus a green chapter was written by a worker in the heart of the desert. By 2015, Farid was able to own a huge farm. Red spinach, tomato, cabbage, cauliflower, radish, a many kinds of vegetable crops! Farid’s farm had 25 workers. He saw that many more agricultural farms have been established in the surrounding areas including Alkhor. Following Farid, many have become entrepreneurs by farming in the desert. Although Farid was saying for the last time, the number of Bangladeshi workers in Qatar is decreasing due to state restrictions. People from Pakistan, Nepal, India and other countries are occupying that place. The subject hurts him a lot. Farid was talking about their visa complications.
The issue of visa extension has become quite difficult. Due to which many workers have had to return to the country as their visas have expired. Farid said he would talk about the matter at higher level. It is unknown at this time what he will do after leaving the post. Not just Farid, what will happen to Abdur Razzak of Mathbaria in Pirojpur, who has set up the largest agricultural farm in Wafra, Kuwait? In Oman, Mustafiz has set up commercial farms in hundreds of bighas. Sohail of Comilla has set up a fish farm in Chikabo village in Lueru district of Uganda, Africa. There was no fish farming in Uganda, only natural fish from Lake Victoria met the demand. Expatriate Bangladeshis have changed the landscape of Uganda with fish. For 15-20 years, Bangladeshi entrepreneurs have been occupying a different place in agriculture in different parts of the world including Malaysia, Middle East and Africa. It is the result of their personal desires and efforts.
But the government has never thought that it is possible to provide employment to the skilled workers in agriculture outside our country. Corona is going through a difficult time all over the world. The United Nations World Health Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization, has repeatedly warned of food shortages.
A seminar on ‘Contract Farming and Job Opportunity for Bangladesh Abroad’ was organized at the Foreign Service Academy in Dhaka on January 20 this year. Retired Ambassador Golam Masih presented a paper on farming or contract farming abroad, especially in Africa. He was Bangladesh’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia and also represented Sudan in Africa as Bangladesh’s representative to the OIC. He gave an excellent presentation on the possibilities of contract farming in African countries. “If we can cultivate in Africa, it will play a role in our food security as well as employment for Bangladeshis,” he said. He also discussed the issue of meeting the demand for cotton in our textile sector through cotton cultivation in Sudan. Maybe his proposal is realistic. We should have taken this initiative fifteen years ago. In 2014, at the initiative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a meeting was held in the hall room of the FBCCI with various stakeholders to build agricultural farms in Africa. After that nothing else was heard about it. It was understood that there was no follow-up from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the issue.
Due to three decades of dedicated service as a peacekeeper under the auspices of the United Nations in various conflict and civil war-torn countries in Africa, Bangladesh’s military, navy, air force, police and NGOs have strengthened relations with countries in Africa and the people of those countries also have a positive attitude towards Bangladesh. The war-torn countries of Africa invited various countries, including Bangladesh, to produce agricultural products on their vast, unused and agriculturally fertile lands for the betterment of their respective countries. Responding to this invitation, our neighboring India and other countries have started farming with a 99-year lease. But for some unknown reason, no one has taken any initiative in our government or private sector. Although privately-owned farms have sprung up in one or two African countries in isolation, they are few and far between.
The Indians are well ahead in agribusiness there. But we were supposed to be ahead in this matter using the reputation created by our army. Even after 50 years of independence, we cannot think of the international concept of agribusiness. To ensure the successful participation of skilled workers and agri-entrepreneurs in our agriculture abroad, the necessary government cooperation and policy-making decisions need to be taken expeditiously. I believe that agriculture can give us economic freedom, real freedom.
(Dr. Forqan is former Deputy Director General, Bangladesh Ansar & VDP).
