Three cheers for our farmers

During my recent visit to the northern districts, I virtually got astonished seeing the lush green paddy fields. Staying in the capital, I myself wrote thousands of words of apprehension, speculating aman crop failure due to want of sufficient rains during the last monsoon.

Aman paddy is almost a cent percent rain-fed crop, and therefore a more profitable crop than the other crops. Besides, aman crop requires less fertilizer and pesticide compared to other crops. But there was scanty rainfall during the full transplant season of aman paddy this year. The northern districts, which generally receive less rainfall than other parts of the country, this year received on an average 50 per cent rainfall and some districts like Dinajpur and Thakurgaon received less than 30 per cent rainfall compared to the normal precipitation.

Apart from scarcity of water, there was also short supply of fertilizer, insecticide, and other inputs. The price of diesel was exorbitant and supply of electricity for operating irrigation pumps was inadequate.

Under these trying circumstances, it was really a matter of great concern as to whether the farmers would be able to bring their lands under aman cultivation. Because, if they go for aman cultivation, they must make arrangements for artificial irrigation. This was the scenario they were presented with this monsoon. Supply of electricity for running irrigation pumps was uncertain and price of fuel-oil was also hiked. Under this situation, cultivation of aman paddy to a farmer means spending extra money for irrigation and purchasing inputs and the consequent rising costs of production.

But setting aside all calculations of cost and benefit, farmers jumped into aman paddy farming and brought their lands under cultivation. During my road journey from the capital, I did not find a single barren field as far as my eyes could see. The entire horizon was covered by green paddy plants. The farmers set their irrigation pumps to motion, which normally remain idle during this season. They were running them on diesel to irrigate their aman paddy fields. They bought fertilizers at double the price of the government rate, borrowed money from the moneylenders, and even sold their cows to carry on the cultivation process.

When asked why they are so desperate to cultivate their lands, a marginal farmer of Mithapukur upazila in Rangpur said farming is their profession, it's their mode of life. They do not have any work if they do not go for cultivation. Farmers, especially the marginal ones, employ their entire family labour to make the cultivation a success. They do not bother about loss and profit. Their only concern is whether they can harvest paddy for a few months till the cultivation of the next crop.

Surprisingly, the endeavour of the poor farmers does not get much attention from our policy-makers. In fact, there is little contribution of the state to the agricultural production process in our country, although agriculture still constitutes nearly 25 per cent of the total Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Agriculture is still the single largest employment sector, offering jobs to over 50 per cent of the active labour force.

Farmers of Bangladesh produce crops for their own survival. They do not think about their contribution to the national economy. But ultimately, farmers' contribution makes a great impact on the economy in terms of GDP and employment. The success of the farmers is their own. In case of crop failure, they have to starve and enter into the vicious cycle of land-mortgaging and money-lending for survival. The government or state machinery seldom comes forward to rescue them from the misery.

Also, neither the government nor state machinery plays a major role in making the production process hassle-free. Rather, every year, farmers have to undergo a great ordeal in getting fertilizer, electricity, diesel, and other inputs, which they buy in cash. The middlemen, supported by the government machinery, push them into misery, creating artificial crisis of inputs to derive extra profit.

The people who are sitting at the helm of policy-making neither calculate the farming community's requirement of inputs nor do they take necessary steps to procure those in time. As a result, every year a huge sum of money is being siphoned off from the pockets of the poor farmers to the henchmen of the ruling party.

Our farmers are brave and defiant. They are optimistic. In every cropping season they gamble with their crops as none can say for sure whether the investment they have to make for raising crops would come back. Natural calamity like flood, drought, and other forms of extreme climatic situations, and pest attack or crisis of inputs may cause failure of their crops. No professionals, except the farmers, would enter into such uncertainties where the question of profit and loss exists.

Despite all this bravery and contribution to the national economy, it is the poor farmers who have fallen prey of the state machinery, government officials, traders, middlemen, and touts. They have to spend extra money, which they earn through hard labour, to get state facilities. They have to bear the consequences of malpractice and inefficiency of the government high-ups. In every county they are the givers, not takers. The "give-and-take" policy does not really apply to them.

Nazrul Islam is a journalist, agriculturist, and environmentalist.