It is expected that most if not all recognize the status, value, and importance of agriculture in Bangladesh.
It is extremely important for many reasons: Food security, source of employment, contribution to GDP, source of nutrition, self-sufficiency, and many other aspects.
National food security attainment is also linked with strategic national security. It is very important for our country to be self-sufficient in staples (eg, rice) to avoid any unwanted food crisis that may be caused by regional or international conflicts.
Besides crop agriculture, which is the main subject to be discussed in the article, other important components of agriculture, especially culture fisheries and livestock, make up our agriculture profile - where one is complementary to the other. This becomes especially clearer when we discuss agriculture as a source of livelihoods for small and marginal farming households.
We have an abundance in the number of policies and so do the agencies that are responsible for agriculture. These policies cover almost all related aspects in terms of commitments.
Yet, if we analyze the real implementation status of each of them, we would hardly see any significant contribution of a particular policy that you can identify as distinctively effective and making a distinct and impactful contribution.
Policies are often nice words, full of all sorts of solutions. This does not necessarily include any plan as to how to monitor their impacts and effectiveness as a process. This means real-time learning can not be tracked and fed into a system for adjustments and replanning a program.
We have a history from swanirvor or self-sufficient agriculture to commercial agriculture to digital/smart agriculture. Now we are at the extension stage of commercial agriculture discourse as the present agriculture minister indicated recently.
Like many other sectors, research and development (R&D) is considered as a fundamental element of agriculture development, serving both elements of commercial and self-sufficiency of staple food production dimensions.
Another important element of the discussion that is often overlooked is to understand the real contribution of public sector investment in agriculture in terms of goods and services provided, subsidies allocated, and pro-active facilitation or intervention in the market in favour of real (marginal and small) farmers.
Very often, the role of the private sector, their contribution, and the extent or volume of their services and networks are not quantified and therefore not recognized. This is especially problematic as a nation to determine the actual goods and services being generated collectively. We need to be able to calculate the relative contribution that each actor group is making and the need for conscious efforts for improvement needed for comprehensive development of the sector.
Whatever has been introduced earlier as elements of discussions needs to be considered within a framework. Such a framework must take into consideration a long-term view of agriculture - one that continues to meet the need of the present and the future supply of nutritious/healthy food without compromising the quality of soil or land, water, ecosystem, biodiversity, and the environment.
There is a real need to review the existing structure of agriculture system management. All the institutions and organizations around it have had a colonial legacy - as is true for many other institutions and organizations in the country.
The issue needs to be looked at seriously in order to be able to make the whole system more up-to-date, effective, dynamic, and relevant as per the demand of the reality of the state of agriculture.
This means that, once analyzed with facts, many of the elements of the system as organizations and institutions will be required to be abolished, or restructured or redefined or realigned in order to be able to function, deliver, and be relevant.
This also means many other relevant ministries and departments which are presently not under the ministry of agriculture or not directly linked need to be associated with. These are issues that will emerge as directly linked conditions that need to be fulfilled in order to deliver. Real transformation needs to come into the system, and we can’t avoid it if that is what is really required.
There is also the battle to guarantee safe food production to ensure healthy, nutritious, and chemical-free food supply for all citizens of the country.
One one hand is the issue of safe food production systems, safe and nutrient-enriched soil, water, environment and biodiversity. On the other are issues of food processing, health and hygiene, regulations, monitoring and governance of the whole system. The trade-offs of each of the interventions need to be properly measured and addressed against any decisions we make now and for the future.
There is also a need for the overhaul in the country’s local government system and to continue to actively implement a democratic decentralization process in which agricultural R&D is structured and aligned so that farmers and stakeholders living in every corner of the country can practice their rights and are guaranteed services that the state is committed to ensure them.
Ahmad Salahuddin is a development researcher. Email: [email protected].
