It is shocking to learn that more than half our farmers—people whose labour and sweat provide the food on our plates—earn less than Tk 34,000 a year, an amount 10 times lower than our current per capita gross national income. According to a new survey by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), 53.65 percent of all food producers in the country operate on a small scale, earning Tk 33,639 on average annually, whereas the rest of the farmers, who are large-scale agri-producers, earn Tk 1,29,956 on average—almost four times higher.
This income disparity reflects decades of agricultural policies and subsidies that have often failed to benefit small-scale producers who constitute, as per BBS definition, the bottom 40 percent of food growers across the country in terms of land area, livestock holdings and annual agricultural revenue. In fact, a World Bank study published in June found that the top 20 percent of farming landholders receive about half of all fertiliser subsidies, while the bottom 40 percent get only 15 percent. Ironically, the majority of our agriculture budget is spent on fertilisers. Despite such subsidy support, farmers are leaving this profession, which is increasingly becoming unprofitable because of unpredictable weather patterns, frequent natural disasters, price volatility of agricultural inputs in the international market, loss of agricultural land, limited market access, and weak post-harvest management.
The current government has taken several initiatives to support farmers, such as introducing the Farmers’ Card, waiving agricultural loans up to Tk 10,000 with interest, and slightly increasing the agricultural budget. However, the allocation as a percent of the total budget has declined by more than five percentage points over the last 15 years. ADP implementation in this sector has also been slow. This is where the government should divert its attention and heed expert recommendations. Measures can include mechanisation of agriculture, ensuring fair prices, strengthening post-harvest management by establishing strong cold storage chains, removing or shrinking the layers of middlemen, syndicates and extortion, and making credit more accessible for small-scale farmers.
The government’s plan to introduce crop insurance to protect farmers from loss caused by natural disasters is a welcome step. But the insurance must not be designed in a way that makes it difficult for marginalised farmers to reap its benefits. Policymakers cannot continue to overlook the woes of the small-scale food producers or allow the corporatisation of the sector to reach a point where food becomes an oligarchic tool.
