[The Foreign Policy, a global magazine of politics and economics, featured Dr Mahabub Hossain in its list of 500 most prominent individuals in the international arena in May 2, 2013. Dr Hossain is the one and only Bangladeshi to have affirmed this elite position. This piece was first published in the Dhaka Tribune on August 31, 2013.]
Dr Mahabub Hossain is not only an agricultural economist, he is also internationally renowned as a development economist. Though an expert of hardcore economics, Dr Hossain has a conspicuous quality when it comes to rural development and agriculture policy in South and South East Asia.
He studied development economics at the Cambridge University and specialised in development economics and agricultural policy in South and Southeast Asia. On the whole, Dr Hossain has a proven track record of expertise throughout his long career in the areas of agrarian structure and land reform policies; rural non-farm proceedings; technology, credit and infrastructure policies; income distribution and poverty; and Asian rice economy. Moreover, he is providing multidimensional thoughts one after another, which are working wonders in our agriculture.
For instance, in case of developing infrastructure of agriculture sectors, Dr Hossain pointed out that it is very urgent to stimulate crops diversification and ensure balance between government and NGO partnerships. Moreover, he took initiatives to introduce knowledge-based technology to ensure right use of inputs for healthy agricultural growth.
In addition, Bangladesh land reform commission vastly used Dr Hossain’s extensive research work in 1984 like land reform condition in Bangladesh, non-industrial development theory, subsidiary and price policies in agriculture, the role of microcredit to remove poverty, the role of Grameen Bank and so on.
At present he is an executive director of Brac, the world’s largest development organisation. He has also been elected as President of the Asian society of agricultural economics for 2011-2015.
Dr Hossain is very hardworking, modest, and industrious in appearance. He was born on the January 2, 1945, in a village called Bangaljee in Nadia district, West Bengal, India. He was the second child and first son of his parents, Doctor Kobad Ali and Fatema Zohara. During the partition in 1947 Dr Hossain’s parents migrated from West Bengal and settled in Karpashdanga village in Dhamurhuda upazila, Chuadanga.
Dr Mahabub Hossain received his primary education at Bishnupur School in Dhamurhuda. However, in the early stages of his childhood he was sent to his grandfather’s house in West Bengal for higher education.
Though he was meritorious in his student life, he was brought up under very strict rules and regulations in his grandfather’s house. From his boyhood he stood first in every examination and took keen interest in learning. He achieved brilliant results in both HSC and Bachelors.
He completed his HSC in 1963 in King Edward High School in Chapra, West Bengal. Then in 1966 he passed his BA examination, obtaining Honours in Economics from the Krishnagar Government College. It was a very famous college during that time. It was established in 1846 and is the oldest college in Nadia. Later, at Honor’s level, Dr Hossain was presented with the prestigious “Gilchrist Award” for obtaining highest mark in Economics in 1966.
After completing his BA Honours, Dr Hossain went to the University of Kolkata for an MA degree in economics but the financial condition of his families compelled him to break away from studies for a couple of years. There were every possibility available for Dr Hossain to build his career but he sacrificed everything and returned to his village to assist his parents.
His father, a village doctor, was a straightforward and honest man. As they had a large family it was difficult for his father to maintain it with his little income. Dr Hossain attempted to support his family by working as a teacher in his village school. He joined the secondary school in Karpashdanga and served as a teacher for two years.
Under his tenure the first batch of students in Karpashdanga secondary school achieved brilliant results in their final exam; out of 30 students, 12 passed with first class. The success was because of Dr Hossain’s noteworthy contribution. He is a wise son and made his parents proud but his father didn’t want his bright son to be involved in teaching. His father wished him to go for higher study so that Dr Hossain could learn to be self-reliant.
During that time Dr Hossain struggled a lot. He started providing tuitions from very beginning of his student life and carried on with his studies through hardship. Back in the year 1968, he was admitted into the Dhaka University and stood first class both in the preliminary and MA exams.
He started his professional career in 1970 and served as a staff economist in Karachi, Pakistan. Later on, he went to University of Cambridge, UK for PhD in 1972 and successfully achieved the PhD degree in 1977.
Dr Hossain’s rigorous efforts like land reform policy, structural change in village industry, non-industrial development, price policy in agriculture, the role of Grameen Bank, and many other extensive research work including 150 papers in distinguished journals has really paid off. The focal points of his research concentrations are breadth of poverty and rural development of Bangladesh, micro-credit, technologies and structural changes in agriculture.
He has also published 11 books that serve the society profoundly. Some of Dr Hossain’s significant books are: “Gramer Manush Grameen Aurthoniti - Jibon Jibikar Poriborton Porjalachona” (Rural people, Rural Economy - an Evaluation of the Changes in Lives and Livelihood), “Asian Rice Bowls,” “A returning Crisis?” “Rice Research in Asia: Progress and Priorities,” “Impact of Rice research in Asia,” “Development in Asian Rice Economy,” “Strategy of Development in Bangladesh,” and “Bangladesher Krishi o Grameen Unnayan” (Agricultural and Rural development of Bangladesh).
Apart from that Dr Hossain was also involved with different reputed global and local organisations. In 1985 he became elected as a visiting scientist in the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Washington DC. Then in 1992 he was a chief of the Social Sciences Division and programme leader of the Rain-fed Ecosystems Programme of International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Philippines. Before that, he worked as the director general (DG) in Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) from 1989 to 1992.
Dr Hossain is well-liked for his valuable contributions to rural development sectors, agriculture policies and procedures in southern part of the world. For instance, his research on grassroots level based on comprehensive and inclusive analysis of primary data from household level sample surveys has facilitated a profound understanding of the operation of rural economy in general and the rice sectors as well.
The exhaustive intelligence on the operation of agriculture and rural economy in Bangladesh that Dr Hossain has forwarded with a rigorous analysis of primary data has made vigorous impingement in the procreation of agricultural development policy in Bangladesh.
Dr Hossain was awarded the first gold medal from the Agricultural Economist Association in 1985 for contributing to the understanding of the operation of rural economy in Bangladesh.
He specialised on the development of Asian rice economy, and restraints to technology approbation and percussion of agricultural technology on income distribution and poverty has similarly persuaded the formulation and priority setting of research programmes at IRRI and in several national agricultural research systems.
In addition, Dr Hossain published two monographs about Grameen bank. Dr Hossain conducted an exclusive evaluation of the Grameen Bank micro-credit programme in Bangladesh published by the International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington DC. It is still widely referred to in the literature on micro-credit. For that Dr Muhammad Yunus also gave his praise and thanked this renowned economist in his autobiography for introducing the Grameen Bank worldwide.
In an exclusive interview with Maasranga TV in June 5, Dr Hossain thanked and showed his sincere gratitude toward Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, founder and chairperson of Brac. However, during this interview he straightforward talked about the contributions of Sir Fazle Hasan Abed and Brac for women empowerment.
I always thanked the Almighty for the great opportunity and a good fortune of meeting him. I consider Dr Hossain to be the most unforgettable character for several reasons.
He was admitted to a hospital recently owing to heart diseases. Dr Hossain is such a man of dedication that even when entering into the room of angiogram, I found him discussing issues of work with his colleagues. I take my hat off to him for his spirit.
Dr Hossain has left a permanent impression on everyone’s mind by his qualities of love and affection, integrity and admirable superiority. He has earned the genuine love and respect from all kinds of people around the world. He is a very eminent economist and personalities all around the world like Indian economist Dr Amartya Sen have sent massages wishing him early recovery.
It is impossible to give a brief autobiography of Dr Hossain. He serves his nation well; his progressive and multifaceted observations regarding agriculture have brought an epoch-making and revolutionary change in the South and South East Asian agriculture.
Our thoughts, best wishes and prayers are with him. I strongly believe that Dr Hossain, in good health, would be priceless for our nation. The secret of his success lay in his instinctive empathy with the tillers of the soil. He firmly established himself in their hearts and nothing could shake him off from the inalienable position.
