Trade Liberalisation
Diesel price hike to harm agriculture
Says CPD dialogue; emphasises more policy support
Staff Correspondent

Fri. May 06, 2005
 

Any hike in diesel price will be a dour setback for the country's agricultural sector, which faces a fierce competition in the present-day liberalised trade regime, said speakers at a city dialogue yesterday.

Rather, more incentives should be offered to the sector, they said, as the cropping pattern in the country has radically changed over the last two decades due to gradually widened agricultural trade liberalism.

They were also of the opinion that the country should put more emphasis on research and extension services, and scale up domestic support in seed supply, irrigation and food processing to improve the market competitiveness of its agriproducts.

The Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), an independent think-tank, organised the dialogue on 'Impact of Agricultural Trade Liberalisation on Cropping Patterns in Bangladesh' at the Cirdap auditorium. CPD Senior Research Fellow Dr Uttam Kumar Dev presented the keynote paper.

Deliberating on the keynote, CPD Executive Director Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya said the recent price hike in diesel has pushed up the production cost and therefore the market price of rice. So, if the diesel price is increased any further, it will hurt the farmers real bad.

"Instead of raising the price," Bhattacharya said, "the government should rationalise the tariff on diesel."

The CPD ED said the agricultural sector needs modernisation and greater policy support if we are to sustain its success.

"Due to trade liberalisation, production of some crops like Boro, potato and vegetables that enjoy more comparative advantages has increased, while cultivation of the crops like wheat, sugarcane, Aush and oilseeds that lack such advantage has come down," he explained.

He regretted that the government could not extend any significant policy support to the crops having comparative advantages, adding the time has come to take a precise decision about sugarcane cultivation as it has much market potential.

The chief guest of the event, State Minister for Agriculture Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, said, "It's true that trade liberalisation has benefited us in case of agricultural inputs. But we need to find out the farmers' share of those benefits, how much have profited from the change in cropping pattern."

The minister also stressed boosting sugarcane production and providing more incentives to the marginal farmers.

Awami League lawmaker Dr Abdur Razzaque said fertiliser subsidy is being misused and pocketed by middlemen and corrupt officials, depriving the farmers.

He also shared the views that any hike in diesel price will be harmful for the sector, which needs modernisation, and that there should be more investment in sugar mills to exploit the potential of the produce to the full.
 

Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal President Hasanul Haque Inu, Commerce Secretary Siddiqur Rahman Chowdhury and Sazzad Jahir of the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) also took part in the discussions, presided over by former finance minister M Syeduzzaman.