The Coronavirus Situation and Government Initiatives
Agriculturist Hamidur Rahman, President, Bangladesh Agricultural Extension Network
The whole world is fighting against Coronavirus. This is a fight for living, a fight for the survival of the human civilisation. The coronavirus disease, named COVID-19, has changed the planet earth within a span of just four months. More than 212 countries have been affected. People are taying indoors to save themselves from the virus infection. Many countries have enforced lockdown. great number of civilization are abandoned now. Despite all these efforts, the number of infected eople keeps rising, the rows of corpses keep getting longer.
The Coronavirus epidemic has led to a worldwide economic depression. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has already expressed a deep concern that the economic slowdown will strand billions of people unemployed and they will lose purchasing power. The production system of agriculture will severely be encumbered that will inevitably lead to a famine.
Our Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is repeatedly reminding us of that warning. She urges us to follow the necessary health protocols with utmost sincerity to fight against Corona as well as offer firm dedication and cordiality towards food production and agriculture. She also urges us to produce nutritious crops by making use of every inch of arable land.
Our staple food is rice which we get from a type of grains. Although Aush, Aman and Boro paddy are cultivated in three cropping seasons in Bangladesh, about 60% of our total production comes from Boro cropping season. This year, a target of producing more than 20 million metric tons of rice has been set in Boro cropping season. So far, favorable weather and the use of balanced fertilizer have shown signs of healthy and less-diseased grains that indicate to exceed the targeted production. A few notable areas for the production of Boro rice is the haor occupied districts in the northestern region of the country. About five lakh hectares of land in 7 districts located in Dhaka, Cumilla, Mymensingh and Sylhet divisions is occupied by Haor. Kishoreganje and Sunamgoanj produce more Boro among these districts. Two popular varieties of Paddy, named Bridhan-28 and Bridhan-29, are mainly cultivated in Haor areas. The yield of Bridhan-29 is higher and the life span is about 20 days longer than Bridhan-28 between two varieties. Paddy planting is completed earlier in Haor than in the plains of the country by 15 December. In lower reaches of the Haor, Paddy is planted earlier by 15-20 November so that the Paddy can be harvested to avoid flood damages hitting in the middle of early April. It is observed that early rains in Sylhet and incessant heavy rainfalls in the Indian states of Meghalaya and Assam upstream of the Haor after mid-April lead to flash floods in Haor areas. The livelihood of the peasants ruined. There is a wailing of desolation in one cropping land of Haor. That concern was forecasted in this year too. The farmers of Haor areas are worried about the forecast of heavy rains from 18 to 20 April and from 25 to 28 April. Due to the Corona lockdown, the closure of public transportation and health hazards, a concern is created whether the agricultural workers from North will be able to come to Haor to harvest paddy. All in all, a worrying uncertain situation is created with the reaping of paddy in Haor.
Having realized the significance of the situation, the Agriculture Minister Dr. Abdur Razzak became concerned in advance to tackle it. He prepared his Ministry and concerned Department of Agricultural Extension to take action to encounter the circumstances. There is only one solution in this regard- paddy will have to be reaped avoiding flash floods if 80% of it becomes harvestable. Sufficient agricultural workers and harvesters are needed for this purpose. From the tk. 200 crore given by The Prime Minister, the highest importance was given to procure the harvester machines and send it to Haor quickly as per the share of Haor.
At the same time, importance was imposed on recruiting agricultural workers from temporary unemployed people, members of farmer family, voluntary organization etc in the interior of districts and to supply workers to Haore from Kurigram, Lalmonirhat, Rangpur, Pabna, Gaibandha, Sirajgoanj, Jamalpur, Mymensingh and Tangail districts following health care regulations. The Agriculture Minister took initiatives to supply agricultural workers to Haore by contacting the Administration, Police, Health Department and even people’s representatives of these districts. Regional, district and upazila level officials of the Department of Agricultural Extension and even Field Assistant Agricultural officers came forward to assist in this work. It marks a new horizon for collaborative action. Agricultural Minister Dr. Abdur Razzak led the work with utmost responsibility, efficiency and dedication. Department of Agricultural Extension managed to send combine harvesters and reapers to Haor under subsidy very quickly during the lockdown. As a result, four hundreds new harvester machines were added to the old machines. It was not easy at all to accomplish these tasks during the lockdown but it has been possible because of the responsible steps taken by The Minister of Agriculture Dr. Abdur Razzak. These rice harvesting machines ware given to the farmers of Haor at 70% of subsidy. Besides, the following steps, distribution of health care materials among the agricultural workers engaged in harvesting paddy in Haor, accomodation for the workers from outside, provision of relief rice were taken through coordination between the district and upazila administrations and people’s representatives.
As these activities were taken, the worries of the farmers of Haor were removed and enthusiasms were revived that encouraged the farmers to harvest paddy festively. When these initiatives of the Ministry of Agriculture were publicized in the media, it assured the people and brought a kind of relief.
Having followed the direction of the Prime Minister, the Agricultural Minister has kept the staff of all the agencies of his ministry active in the field level. He is moving forward with utmost sincerity and cordiality to ensure protection and collection of field crops to continue the progress of agricultural development and to formulate the production plans of crops and its implementation measures for the next Aush, Aman and Boro cropping seasons. Dr. Md. Abdur Razzak, an agriculturist, has avowed to work diligently with the courage of a patriot and people-friendly freedom fighter so that he can keep control over the food situation of the country. Even he is not disinclined to observe on directly whether the direction is being followed properly and whether there is any inconsistency with the information received in the root level.
For example, despite the health risks of Coronavirus, he went to Khaliajury Upazila Haor of Netrokona District on 15 April to distribute combine rice harvester machines under subsidy among the farmers and encouraged them with relief. He also inspired the officials of the field level of his ministry. Honorable State Minister for Social Welfare Ashraf Ali Khashru, local MPs, Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture, Director Secretary of the Department of Agricultural Extension, local people’s representatives and political leaders were present that day along with the farmers. The initiative of the Minister of Agriculture was widely publicised and appreciated in the media. Abdur Gaffar Chowdhuy, a renowned veteran journalist, has praised the initiatives of Agricultural Minister Dr. Abdur Razzak in a recent sub-editorial registration of The Daily Janakantha.
The Agricultural Minister Dr. Abdur Razzak had a discussion of three and half-hour through video conference from his office with the agricultural experts of the country on 27 April. The main intention of the exchange of views was to discuss the strategies and necessary steps for the development of agriculture during the Corona time. Analyzing the views obtained in the discussion, he sought to identify the special tasks of his ministry for the upcoming days. The main purpose of this initiative is to take the right steps to follow the instructions of Honorable Prime Minister.
The opposite side of Haor is Shunamgoang adjacent to Meghalaya of India. Boro paddy has been cultivated in more than 160000 hectares of land in Sunamgoanj in this year. There are more than 300 small and big Haors in the district. The Haors of the district are submerged earlier due to flash floods caused by downpours. Avoiding the damage caused by flash floods is always a big challenge for the district to raise paddy from Haors. Recently, various news have been publicised in the media regarding with the possibility of paddy reaping and floods in the district. The matter concerned the Minister of Agriculture. How many rice harvester machines have been provided in the district? How much successfully are these machines working? How effective are the steps taken to meet the shortage of agricultural labourers? Having informed the Prime Minister, he left Dhaka by car on April 29 morning to see these matters directly and reached Shanghai Haor in south Sunamgoanj Upazila of Sunamgoanj by 10 am. Planning Minister MA Mannan accompanied him on the visit. Besides, local MPs, concerned officials of district and upazila level and local political leaders also joined. He handed over the keys of two combine harvesters to two farmers at a subsidy of 70%. The villagers were astonished and fascinated to see the handing over of the combine harvester and the reaping and threshing of paddy with the harvester. The use of the machine not only reduces the cost of harvesting but also the cost of transportation and threshing of paddy. A great enthusiasm is created among the farmers having got such a harvester. The place where the Paddy is harvested became festive. The same thing was happened when The Minister of Agriculture and the Minister of planning went to Shonir Haor of Meghalaya borderline to hand over the combine harvester and to see the progress of paddy harvesting.
Most of the media have described the Agriculture Minister’s stand by the farmers in Sunamgoanj as encouraging and responsible initiative.
The Minister of Agriculture Dr. Abdur Razzak is a heroic freedom fighter. In his period of youth , in 1971, he took up arms to liberate the country from the clutches of subjugation. Now, in his old age, he has appointed himself in a war to retain the progress of agricultural development of Bangladesh from the grips of Corona pandemic and to save the people of Bangladesh from the imminent famine. Bangabondhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, father of the nation, played his roles as commander-in-chief during the liberation war of Bangladesh in 1971 and now Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the daughter of Bangabondhu, has taken her father’s roles to fight against an invisible force. Dr. Abdur Razzak is fighting under the direction of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. We expect the initiatives of the Agricultural Minister to be fruitful. Farmers will win, Bangladesh will laugh.