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Do you think that government has made substantial progress in the area of Agriculture?
 

Key recommendations from Jagoree members

1. "The distribution channels for fertilizers and seeds, as well as the procurement mechanisms for rice and wheat need to be reorganized and made more efficient. Otherwise other good initiatives like setting minimum price of rice and subsidizing fertilizers will not bear fruits for the people who these are intended for. The middlemen will take profits out of funds intended for the poor." - Rubayat

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Legend

↑ Government is keeping focus on a promise through rhetoric only.

↑↑ Government has taken a concrete step (allocating finances/formulating policy) towards implementing a promise or in furthering the nation in a specific manifesto area.

↑↑↑ A step taken by a government previously has led to sizable output in a specific area of the manifesto's scope.

↑↑↑↑ An output of nationwide significance, jubilation and/or appreciation has taken place as a result of a government step.

↔ Government actions are ambiguous in a way which does not show their commitment either for or against fulfillment of a manifesto promise.

↑↓ The action has the potential to be either positive or negative and is hard to judge immediately.

↓ Government is not keeping focus on a promise even through rhetoric

↓↓ Government has taken a concrete step (finances/ policy) which will hinder implementation of a promise or will cause the nation to go backward in a specific manifesto area.

↓↓↓ A negative step taken by a government previously has led to significant outcome which is contradictory to the agenda in a specific area of the manifesto.

↓↓↓↓ An output of nationwide public outcry, grievance or mourning which has taken place as a result of a government step.

Jagorometer Team

Maya, Ritu, Mahrukh, Munia, Shahnila, Priyanka, Mridul, Rubayat, Ashik, Ismail, Sanjan, & Rain

THE ISSUE

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Agriculture is one of the most crucial issues not only because we are agro-based economy, but also because the livelihoods of more than four-fifths of our population depend directly or indirectly on it. Another aspect of the issue is food security, which is extremely crucial for a developing country.

THE PROMISES
AGRICULTURE
1. Increase subsidy for agricultural inputs and ensure easier availability of inputs
2. Increase agricultural loans (esp for sharecroppers) and simplify lending procedure
3. Ensure fair price for all crops & agricultural products
4. Modernize agriculture and increase productivity using innovative technologies. Expand agricultural research.
5. Try to attain self-sufficiency in fish, milk, egg, livestock and salt.
6. Distribute Khas land among landless farmers
7. Export surplus products after meeting domestic requirement
8. Take measures to reclaim land in coastal areas
9. Strengthen rural warehousing
10. Make Bangladesh self-sufficient in food by 2013.
RURAL DEVELOPMENT
1. Computerize land records
2. Form Land Reform Commission to ensure social justice in distribution of land and water bodies.
3. Develop non-agricultural sector in villages
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Agriculture

Jagorometer Analysis

This is one of the areas where the government has put most focus in since taking office, and not surprisingly. The price of essential agricultural products was a major challenge during caretaker government and largely drove the campaigns of parties prior to the elections.

The government deserves credit for its performance in the first fifteen months in office, even though external conditions have remained relatively favorable – e.g. decrease of international grain prices, no major natural calamities, etc. – making the task relatively easier. The government seems to have kept focus on the most important promises made in this area, especially the top three:

A1: Increase subsidies and ensure easy availability of agricultural inputs
  • The government allocated new subsidies for farmers several times so far. Very early into the term, the govt. cut fertilizer prices by half, and also diesel prices by a small amount, demonstrating their commitment to this promise. Similar price cuts were repeated near the end of 2009. Recently, a total subsidy of 750 crores has started to be distributed among 9.1 million small and medium farmers, and an additional 1400 crores has been requested by Matia Chy. While positive for the farmer, such artificial distortion of market forces might not always bring positive results from a macroeconomic perspective. For example, far higher international prices can encourage smuggling and be draining on the national economy.
  • During the Boro Season in 2009, and again in 2010 (presently ongoing), the government has diverted electricity to rural areas for uninterrupted irrigation at the cost of urban load-shedding, which was a welcome move.
  • The government has created a Agricultural Input Assistance (ID) Card for 15 million farmer families, and is currently distributing it. Small and medium farmers can use this ID card to get assistance and subsidies and also open bank accounts. This is likely to eliminate corruption and increase efficiency in distribution of subsidies, and ensure it is actually reaching the farmers in need, and not filling the pockets of middlemen instead. This database of farmer families must however be regularly updated by a responsible and accountable authority in order to make this expensive undertaking fruitful in the long run.
  • Agricultural traders and middlemen are being required to get licenses, which will regulate the market better, and reduce instability and large middlemen profits.
A2: Increase agricultural loans and simplify lending procedure
  • The most important step for achievement of this goal came in January 2010, when it was announced that farmers can open bank accounts against their new ID cards at state banks for only a nominal fee of Tk. 10. If this scheme can be made popular, and once farmers have bank accounts, they can get loans much more easily and at much lower rates of interest than from traditional moneylenders and loan-sharks, or even NGOs. It must however be remembered that small accountholders like farmers will be a difficult task to manage the risks of, because of the latter’s lack of papers and collateral, lack of access and comfort with the paperwork necessary, the bank’s lack of human resources to collect payments from individual debtors, high risk of non-recovery, etc.
  • Significant progress has been made, at least w.r.t. numerical loan disbursement targets. Loan targets were increased by 23% in 2009 from the previoius year, and the Bangladesh Bank Governor promised another one-fourth increase in FY 2010. However, we do not know how much of this target was actually disbursed, and more importantly, to whom.
  • Also, loans cannot be judged based on disbursement targets only; it has to factor in the repayment rates as well. The repayment rate after the Boro season is not yet known, and is essential for evaluating the efficacy of these loans.
A3: Ensure fair price for all crops and agricultural products
  • In 2009, the govt. tried hard, and succeeded, in reaching an acceptable middle ground between consumer affordability and farmer’s subsistence, and declared a fair price for procurement of rice. Implementation, however, was not optimal according to some experts and news reports, who say that corruption and inefficiency in local distribution chains were the main culprits. It remains to be seen how the government deals with this issue in the new year.
  • The task was made relatively easier because of consistent fall of international market prices, except near the end of the year, when some commodities like sugar and lentils experienced price hikes which destabilized the market and caused public outcry. The government failed to deal with these situations well, issuing unnecessary arrest warrants against sugar businessmen which created a sense of panic and insecurity among the business community.
  • Requiring all traders to get licenses before trading in agricultural products, the government took a smart step in controlling the instability and inequity in the production and supply chain. This could discourage hoarding and syndicate activity, and therefore smoothen out price hikes while ensuring fair prices for farmers themselves.

Apart from these, the government has taken some significant steps to ensure food security for the population, including re-prioritizing the roles and geographic distributions of various crops, timely and expanded OMS, etc. The government has also been recently encouraging modern technologies in farming through a subsidy program designed to help farmers by agricultural power tools. There are, however, some rooms for improvement with respect to irrigation technology (which is still not optimal according to BRRI) and import planning to deal with production shortfalls (as in the case of lentil).
Targets that did not receive sufficient focus yet are:
  • Distribute Khas land among landless farmers
  • Reclaim land in coastal areas
  • Land reform and digitization of records

 

Government's Scorecard


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  1. The sole purpose of Jagorometer is to encourage non-partisan citizen-centric analysis of progress towards manifesto goals - Jagorometer is not necessarily meant to be a watchdog of the government.
  2. We have had to use select newspapers for information, and do not take responsibility for factual errors, contextual inaccuracies, incomplete or misleading information in these sources.
  3. Due to our use of volunteer labour to screen through newspapers, there might have been inadvertent omissions. Please point out any mistakes/oversights and we will correct ASAP.
  4. Our analysis in this page may not be completely error free, due to use of limited secondary sources of information, and our insufficient understanding of unreported events affecting the progress. Please leave comments to point out our analytical shortfalls.
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