Hridoye Mati O Manush celebrates first anniversary

Seraj surveys nature's bounty with a farmer at Shibganj

The BTV programme was a milestone. Few TV viewers could fathom that a programme on agriculture could be so interesting. Moreover, many disbelieved that a youth of Seraj's age could have such complete dedication to agriculture--probably the most neglected sector of this agriculture-based country.

"I have always believed that our country can never prosper if our agriculture does not develop," says Shykh Seraj. "And this belief had drawn me to make such a TV programme. I thought that if I can motivate the people, both rural and urban, if my programme can provide them with the slightest guideline, maybe one day there will be the real 'green revolution' in our country."

Viewers of Mati O Manush are aware of the impact of the programme, especially on the youth: during 1982-1996 the country witnessed a massive rise of household agriculture in the forms of poultry, fishery, apiculture and kitchen gardening besides the main stream agricultural activities.

In 2002, Seraj started thinking about reviving the programme on Channel-i. After an extensive research work of two years, the channel aired the first episode of the revived programme, with a slightly changed name--Hridoye Mati O Manush.

What is the programme's approach towards agriculture this time? "I thought that we had done enough motivation during 1982-1996 and people did not need that anymore," says Seraj. "So I shifted my focus on another important aspect of agriculture in which our farmers have always been the losers--the proper marketing system of the agricultural products. Besides, I planned to work upon how the farmers could be freed from the grip of the non-productive 'middlemen', whose intervention causes a rise in the prices, how farmers could be associated with the agricultural organisations, and how the loan system could be made easier for the farmers."

Hridoye Mati O Manush has been quite successful in its commitment so far. After it focused on the problems of marketing tomatoes produced by the farmers of Moulabhibazar, the Agriculture Ministry has taken initiatives such as how to market the huge amount of tomatoes instead of importing it every year. Similarly, in an episode the programme documented how pineapples are wasted in the country just because there are no processing plants or juice factories for pineapple. "Private companies have come forward in this regard," informs Seraj.

The anniversary episode will focus on the farmers of Bishorkandi village of Banaripara upazila, Barisal, who have been growing crops on floating beds due to lack of dry land for the last 200 years. "Very few people including even those in the Agriculture Ministry knew about these farmers and their traditional farming," says Seraj. "These farmers use water hyacinth for preparing the bed; as a result, the crops never need chemical fertiliser as the hyacinth produce the best quality manure. It's a wonder how these people have invented such an effective 'organic agriculture system' in our country but we hardly know about them," says Seraj regretfully.

" Bangladesh will prosper someday," says Seraj in an inspiring tone. "For, people will gradually learn the necessity of agriculture, and everything will become agriculture-oriented. Otherwise, nothing, not even politics, will survive," asserts Shykh Seraj.