Farmers need protection
The country grew 90 lakh metric tonnes of rice in 1972-73 for its 7.50 crore population. Now the production is 3.50 crore metric tonnes to feed 16 crore people. The government’s claim that Bangladesh is self-sufficient in food, but our question is: Why did the government import about four lakh metric tonnes of rice in last four months? What are the reasons that a large number of rice mills remaining shut and the labourers are living in extreme hardship?
Surplus production does not pledge return of investment. Marginal farmers sell their produce to middlemen under duress and, thereby, are deprived of actual profits. In our country, sharecroppers are the most sufferers. Though landlords bear no cost of production, they take away 50 percent of the crops produced by sharecroppers.
In our country, there is a practice of advance sale of labour and those who sell are bound to act on instruction of the moneylenders. In such condition, the government, village moneylenders, NGOs and feudal lords may become happy, farmers are sufferers by any count. So, farmers need State protection to survive.
Abdullah Akber
Dhaka
