Prompted by the impact of
agriculture policy on the Indian
elections, civil society members
stressed the need for mapping a
policy framework for the
agriculture sector with
region-specific targets to fight
the chronic poverty.
Poverty reduction is almost
impossible without boosting the
agriculture sector,
re-distributing land and
strengthening local government,
they said at a seminar in Dhaka on
Wednesday.
“The Indian electoral verdict
indicates that profitability of
the farmers needs to be ensured in
the public policy issues,” said
economist Dr Hossain Zillur Rahman,
speaking at the seminar organised
by a local research organisation
at the CIRDAP auditorium.
A BNP lawmaker hinted that the
agriculture sector would get
special attention in the coming
budget as he has also learnt from
the Indian experience that the
‘shining India’ factor did not
work out in the recent polls.
Mushfiqur Rahman, chairman of the
parliamentary standing committee
on the Ministry of Finance and
Planning, admitted that the
agriculture sector did not get
significant importance in any of
the budgets placed so far.
“You will see a lot of support for
the agriculture sector in this
budget,” he said while addressing
the seminar as chief guest. “But
political parties should reach a
consensus on the poverty issue.”
The stunning election verdict in
India, largely affected by neglect
of agriculture, has made
economists, politicians and former
bureaucrats — who spoke at the
seminar — more concerned about the
development of agriculture here.
They strongly felt that the
government should strengthen local
government institutions to address
the specific problems of the
targeted areas, instead of
concentrating all the development
programmes in the centre.
As disputes are still there within
the party and outside on
decentralisation of
administration, lawmaker Mushfiqur
Rahman told the seminar that a
‘pressure group’ needs to be
created to influence the
government to strengthen local
government institutions.
Former cabinet secretary Mujibul
Huq said poverty reduction at the
grassroots level will be difficult
if local government is not
strengthened.
The Centre for Policy Dialogue
organised the seminar, titled
‘Mapping poverty for rural
Bangladesh: implications for
pro-poor development’, with its
chief, Professor Rehman Sobhan, in
the chair.
Mahbub Hossain of the
International Rice Research
Institute read out the keynote
paper on ‘Geographical
concentration of rural poverty in
Bangladesh’.
The study identified Sunamganj,
Habiganj, Netrokona, Kurigram,
Nilphamari, Nawabganj, Cox’s Bazar
and the costal islands of Bhola,
Hatia and Sandeep as the areas
with the highest level of poverty.
Determinant factors causing high
level of poverty in these regions
include poor human, financial and
physical capital, and lack of
accessibility to natural
resources, it said.
It also said that inequality in
income and entitlement to land are
major determinants of poverty and
suggested that land, especially
khas land, should be
re-distributed among the real
landless people through land
reforms.
As low enrolment and high drop-out
rates are also linked with chronic
poverty, the study suggests that
the government needs to provide
special incentives to poor
households to encourage them to
send their children to school and
continue their schooling, at least
up to secondary level.
Economists Dr Binayak Sen, Dr
Atiur Rahman, Dr Rushidan Islam,
former finance minister Abul Mal
Abdul Muhit, former secretary Abul
Ahsan, BNP lawmaker Abdur Razzaque,
Awami League lawmaker Faruque
Khan, and left politicians Hasanul
Haq Inu and Noore Alam Ziku also
spoke on the seminar.
