Envisioning agricultural sustainability from ecological spectrum

Muhammad Tanim Nowshad || Sunday 02 August 09 || READ BY SUBJECT: Bangladesh Politics


Abstract:

The cardinal aspect of this article is to recast the Bangladeshi understanding of agriculture and its philosophy. Nowadays the Bangladeshis have the tendency to emphasize a monolithic agricultural system like other parts of the world, which underscores hyper productivity to sensationalize hedonism and raw consumerism. The essay wants to visualize the agriculture and production system of Bangladesh from a wide spectrum and proposes to reconsider the facts from a humane nook for the intellectual nourishment and sustainability of the both issues. It also analyses discursively the meaning of agricultural sustainability from environmental and ecological facets and tries to reconsider the problems that emanated due to the lack of proper knowledge on environment and ecology or underestimating the indigenous knowledge. Here the philosophy of agriculture has been relocated from the personal Weltanschauung of the author. The effort of philosophizing and spiritualizing agriculture and consuming pattern has been undertaken to hoist a possibility for the agricultural sustainability in Bangladesh. The essay also wants to acknowledge the indigenous knowledge and the local practices, which have been nourishing the agricultural of Bangladesh from time immemorial. In many cases they are supposed to be more relevant for the sustainability of agriculture of Bangladesh which was formed upon alluvial deposits than the established mechanical agricultural methods. The essay will also review these relevant issues.

Why is Agriculture so important for Bangladesh?

At least 66% Bangladeshi are directly linked with agriculture and over 82% are somehow associated with agro based activities. It is the single largest producing sector of the economy. It comprises about 30% of the country's GDP and employed around 60% of the total labor force.[1] The performance of this sector has a massive impact on major macroeconomic objectives like employment generation, poverty alleviation, human resources development and food security. It is a natural accolade that Bangladesh was formed on the alluvial deposits and the civilization was, therefore, established on the river banks like other major civilizations of Asia and off course alike other parts of south Asia. Due to the deposited silts and affluence of water, agriculture became an irreversible fate for the people of ancient Bengal (which is present days’ Bangladesh). As a former part of India and if we glance over the recorded history of two millennia, land tilling and growing crops are always the basic livelihood here from time immemorial. Here jute and rice are main agricultural products. A considerable amount of tea, wheat and maize are also produced here every year. The farmers are gradually looking at vegetables with a merciful mentality and producing an ample amount each year. Rice can be grown and harvested in this land even three times a year in some areas. The supply of rice is plenty all the year round and as a result it became the staple food of the country. Seventy percent (75%) of agricultural land is used every year for rice cultivation, which earns 28 percent of the GDP. The so-called ‘golden fiber of Bengal’ i.e. the leading cash crop already has lost its previous splendor and market demand due to the lack of infrastructural support. Jute was once the economic engine of the country. Its share of the world export market peaked in the Second World War. In the late 1940s 80% and even in the early 1970s 70% of Bangladesh’s export earnings came from Jute and its products.[2] The emergence of petroleum based synthetics (polypropylene products) undercut its cultivation. The other agricultural products are still a vital force of the Bangladeshi economy. After Service Sector (it earns 52% of GDP) the highest annual GDP is ensured in Bangladesh from agriculture (30%), the third position is secured by industry (18%)[3].

The summary of the traditional agriculture

The history of agriculture in South Asia is one of the oldest in the world and inevitably Bangladesh has been maintaining the same historical tradition. The largest part of the world population lives In South Asia. It is the abode of almost one quarter of the total global population[4]. Bangladesh is the most densely populated country in the world with over 150 million people, where per capita income is only 13, 00 US dollar (2007 est.)[5]. The total land is only 144,000 sq km and arable land is 55.39%. The permanent crops are produced in only 3.08% of the total landmass. Basically the traditional agriculture of Indian subcontinent was dependant upon the mercy of nature. Before modern irrigation system the people of Bangladesh like India used to depend upon raining and some traditional methods of irrigation that include pitcher, swing basket, and a hollowed-out log fixed on a pivot and fitted with a counterbalance. It is still visible in many parts of Bangladesh. Using a wooden plow and two oxen one man can plow 0.02 hectares only in a working day of eight to ten working hours.  Although during the dry season the farmers encounter a lot of difficulties (the agricultural year begins also in late February in Bangladesh, when the weather is normally dry and gets warmer). This cultivating process may not always yield expected outcome but is consistent to maintain the equipoise with nature.

How we turned towards a manmade disaster

Like many other countries we cherish a wrong conception that the more we could grow food grains and other crops the more we could raise our economy and economic benefits. We also believe that the main objective of the existing lands is to provide us the maximum amount of production, although we do not bother for how this purpose will be served. Due to a huge population the demand for food increase is a constant scenario in Bangladesh. Therefore tube wells with electric pumps (where electricity is available) were added to enhance the production rate in 1960s. On the other hand, in 60s the farmers started to use insecticides and pesticides to remove insects, bacterial attack etc for a grandiose harvest. But the consciousness on agriculture was shallow among those who inspired the farmers to use chemical fertilizers. In Bangladesh the scientific developmental approach is mainly to utilize the foreign invented and prescribed goods and apparatuses.  The major havocs that emanated from this shallow knowledge are as follows:

a)      The Havocs from pesticides

We see that national sales of the classes of insecticide used on rice, including granular carbofuran, synthetic pyrethroids, and malathion exceeded 13,000 tons of formulated product in 2003. The regular utilization of these chemical substances primarily increases production, but ultimately they severely destroy the fertility of land, petrify the soil to a larger extent, hamper bio-diversity etc. One case study is enough to understand the level of injury upon bio-diversity because of the pesticides.

“On the 31st August, 1999, in the village Dakatia of Jessore, a district on the western border areas in Bangladesh, people watched the mass death of sparrows in the vegetable fields. More than 5,000 sparrows were found dead there. Those who were still alive were bleeding; bloodstains could be spotted on their beads. The same thing happened in every other field in the area. Dakatia is 7 km on the northern side of Jessore town. Here trees like mango, jackfruit, lichi etc. are found abundantly. These trees are the shelters of the small birds. About 4000 people live in this village, out of which 80% are engaged in farming. The land is not very suitable for rice cultivation, but vegetable production is quite significant. Due to the promptness of the pesticide companies, the farmers in the village are using all kinds of pesticides ranging from the brand names such as Marshal, Sumithion, Thiovit, Furadan, Ripcord, Kap, Sumibus, Sevin Dust, Santap. Besides since the village is on the border to India, there are many smuggled pesticides, especially those, which are not sold in the Indian markets. Among the Indian pesticides Ustad, Thidrin, Methodrin are very hazardous. These are widely found in the villages. It is learnt that the fields where the sparrows were killed, the Indian pesticide Ustad was applied.[6]”

The pesticides, which are reported used, are in the categories of having hazardous effect according to WHO list. For example, Furadan (Carbofuran pesticide) is in the category of highly hazardous ones. Moderately hazardous pesticides are Marshal 6G & 20EC (Carbosulfan), Suntap 50SP (Cartap), Ripcord 10EC (Cypermethrin), Sumithion (Fenitrothion), KAP 50EC (Phenthoate), Sevin 10% Dust (Carbaryl), Ustad 10EC (Cypermethrin), Sumibus 75EC (Fenitrothion + BPMCS) and Thiovit 80WP (sulfur) in the category of UPAH (Unlikely to present acute hazard). Most of them are categorized as moderately hazardous. In addition, the excessive applications of these pesticides create further threat to the safety of the human and animal health.[7]

There are other difficulties in handling pesticides. Most of the farmers are not well aware of the fertilizers and insecticides and use huge amount in their lands in proportion to their sizes. The World Bank reported[8],

  • According to a recent survey of 820 boro (winter rice), potato, bean, eggplant, cabbage, sugarcane and mango growers, more than 47% of farmers in Bangladesh use more pesticides than needed to protect their crops.
  • Only 4% of Bangladeshi farmers are formally trained in using pesticide or handling. 
  • More than 87% freely admit that they use little or no protective measures while applying pesticides.
  • Farmers identified pesticide traders as a main source of information.
  • 54% of the traders report that frequent health symptoms are commonly associated with acute pesticide poisoning.
  • 92% freely admit that they don't take any protective measures while handling pesticides.

From the same report we knew that, the indiscriminate use of agricultural pesticides has created very serious health and environmental problems in many developing countries. One to five million farm workers are estimated to suffer pesticide poisoning worldwide every year (WHO, UNEP) and at least 20,000 die annually from exposure. Most of the incidents take place in the developing countries.

b)      The use of shallow and deep tube wells and the traumatic arsenic problems

In the 1960s in the then East Pakistan (today’s’ Bangladesh), first hyper productive hybrid IRRI was initiated to reduce the dearth of food grains. Huge amount of money was spent to establish shallow and deep tube wells. The water level gradually went down and touched the arsenic layer. This was the beginning of the arsenic attack on the Bangladeshi people.  

 In June 1996, Dhaka Community Hospital (DCH) held a health camp at Pakshi in the western part of the country in which several skin patients were suspected of having arsenical skin lesions. Some tube wells from that area were tested and high content of arsenic was found there. DCH informed that the local officials and the newspapers reported on this issue. DCH sent a fact finding team consisting of 8 members including 3 skin specialists and 3 other senior doctors to that area. They collected water samples from 41 tube wells and biological samples (nail, hair, skin and urine) form 95 patients. In 66% of the water samples and more than 90% of the biological samples, arsenic concentration was found higher than normal level. Later DCH and SOES (School of Environmental Studies, Jadavpur University, Calcutta) conducted surveys for arsenicosis patients in 64 districts and found patients with arsenical skin lesions in 32 of them. They examined 24664 people in the affected villages and 33.6% of them were diagnosed as patients with arsenical akin manifestations. A Total of 2167 hair samples, 2165 nail samples, 220 skin samples and 830 urine samples were analyzed and an average of 94% of them were found to have arsenic concentration above the normal limit. In this survey the traumatic finding was, in water samples of 47 districts’ out of 64 (the total districts of Bangladesh at that time) arsenic above 0.05mg/1 was found, the maximum permissible limit recommended by WHO and in 54 districts the arsenic concentration was more than 0.01 mg/1, the WHO recommended value for safe water. In those 47 districts where arsenic concentration crossed 0.05 mg/1 limit, 54.64% of the samples were found to have crossed the WHO permitted limit.[9]

Recent surveys showed that about 85 million people of the country are living under the risk of Arsenic poisoning as the groundwater of a vast region has been contaminated with Arsenic.[10] The Arsenic pollution is not only causing serious health hazard to the people, but also affecting the environment and creating social problems.[11] The investigation report said that the so-called ‘Green Revolution’ for agriculture has been identified conjecturally to be the recent cause of the problem which has involved large-scale unplanned withdrawal of ground-water. This is gradually denuding the arsenic deposited under the fertile delta of Bangladesh by the rivers from the Himalayas or some other sources that deposited arsenic millions of years ago.[12] This so-called Green Revolution was orchestrated by establishing thousands of shallow and deep tube wells, which caused indiscriminate withdrawal of groundwater and the major causes of Arsenic pollution emanated from it.

From the table based of 1996’s Data we can fathom how dangerously the arsenic attack was dissipated in Bangladesh in the late 90s.

Table-1: Arsenic Problems in the Districts of Bangladesh[13]

 

No. of affected

Districts

No. of Affected

Thanas

Name of the Districts

More Contaminated

Districts

33

137

Nawabganj, Bagerhat, Satkhira, Meherpur, Kushtia, Chuadanga, Zhinaidah, Magura, Norail, Jessore, Faridpur, Rajbari, Gopalganj, Madaripur, Shariatpur, Laxmipur, Noakhali, Feni, Chandpur, Comilla, Brahminbaria, Narayanganj, Pabna, Rajshahi, Khulna, Munshiganj, Manikganj, Norshingdi, Sylhet, Sunamganj, Moulavibazar, Barisal, Pirojpur

Less Contaminated

Districts

11

18

Gaibandha, Kurigram, Nilphamari, Sirjaganj, Natore, Jamalpur, Netrokona, Cox'sbazar, Kishoreganj, Sherpur, Chittagong

Contamination Free

Districts

16

 

Panchagar, Thakurgaon, Lalmonirhat, Dinajpur, Rangpur, Joypurhat, Bogra, Naogaon, Dhaka, Tangail, Mymensingh, Hobiganj, Bhola, Zhalokathi, Patuakhali, Gazipur

District not yet surveyed

04

 

 

Total

64

 

 

Along with physical crisis this arsenicosis has created a lot of social turbulences. The affected people have become virtually isolated from the society. People are dismayed to marry any arsenic affected male or female.[14] The children of the affected person have become the victim of social avoidance and negligence.

C) The pillage of the agribusiness farms

The initiation of these tube wells already spent huge amount of currency. The poor farmers became victim economically of the agribusiness farms. These are quite expensive for the rural peasantry.  For the sake of their farming they give their lands to the ago-industries in exchange of tube wells, fertilizers and pesticides. But most of them can not pay back the money and become gradually the serfs of multinational agribusinesses and agro industries.

Now we will take a look on these agribusinesses and agro-industries and their contributions in genetic engineering.

The basic problem of this genetic engineering is its working maturity; it is only 20 to 35 years old. But it is working in our agriculture sector, which dates back from thousands of years. However the scientists could firmly demystify 3 to 5% of DNA mysteries.[15] The shallow knowledge of genetic engineering produced a lot of Frankensteins through its experimentations. One of those ghouls is Genetically Modified Organism (GMO).

 Basically GMO was invented to resist the agricultural products from being decomposed.  The small farmers, who produce small amount of crops or vegetables, sell daily. But the agro industries produce thousands of tons per day. They have to protect their products from decomposing. Therefore they started to inject genes of one animal or plant to another. Again for the sake of aggrandizing the production rate, their scientists injected GMOs.  GMO injected seeds will have to be sowed repeatedly in a filed, if it is applied there once. Besides, “Potential impact on biodiversity may occur, if herbicide-tolerant crops are sprayed with herbicide to a larger extent. No wild plants ('weeds') are able to survive in this case. Plants which are toxic to insects may mean insect-free crops. This could result in decline of other wild lives (e.g. birds), which feed on weed seeds and/or insects as food resources.”[16]

Virtually because of these GM foods (Genetically Modified Foods), the farmers have to be dependent upon the multinational agribusinesses and agro-industries. The specific pesticides, fertilizers and irrigation systems are also related to the production of these seeds. Therefore the farmers are becoming the serfs of these industries. Besides with our inadequate scientific knowledge, if we change any living being’s inner pattern and we loose the pristine pattern for ever, it will cause a permanent damage on the ecology. We had 15,000 types of paddies in Bangladesh. After the advent of hybrid and GM crops (Genetically Modified Crops), the number has been reduced to only a few remaining types. [17]

Agriculture means “understanding Nature”

In modern days we have a tendency to consider everything from a stereotyped academic view. But like many other sectors this tendency also created hazardous and horrendous outputs in agriculture. Nature has her own ‘mantra’, which she confides to the genes of the peasants from generation to generation. The peasants, the sons of nature, were failed many a times to harvest bumper production, but never damaged our nature to such extent that we are witnessing today because of the blessings of these so-called modern technologies. The peasants who know the mantra of nature think widely different than how the so-called modern agriculturists think. These peasants are the natural scientists and we have to concede the fact at first.

As for example in 1988 Bangladesh was inundated by a severe flood. Just after that the World Bank took a large scale project to construct damns to safeguard our massive areas from flood water.  But many farmers could understand that these damns would create problem for their regular channeling of water for their irrigation. They know very well that the floods are a constant part of our Nature and they are not always ominous for our economy. The floods carry huge amount of alluvial deposits and silts each year. These are very fertile and fecund for producing paddy, rice, sugarcane, wheat and vegetables. Therefore they started to mass up the alluvial deposits to use for growing crops.[18]

Another important thing that the traditional farmers (the followers of Nayakrishi Andolon) invented is how to save crops from the attack of insects. Primarily they wanted to use bio-fertilizers and bio-pesticides to achieve a successful harvest. But later they found that they are also injurious to crops and the small and micro living beings, which are important for the natural growth of the crops. Normally the frogs, snakes, birds which devour the insects, they also become victims of the pesticides and insecticides. Besides the microbes and small living beings like earth worms also die for the use of these chemical poisonous  substances, which loosen the soil and let oxygen, nitrogen etc enter into the soil and make it more fertile. Therefore the farmers started multi-cropping or mixed-cropping. These systems developed on the basis of observations. As for example, one insect, which is harmful to one crop, is congenial to the growth of another crop. Thus a new management of cultivation solved a big problem to a certain extend and levered bio-diversity. It is a primary cognizance of the wise farmers that they recognize all the living beings of earth are somehow useful for us and the Nature. So the first priority of agriculture should be growing food assuring the safeguard of the living beings. Some traditional farmers already could iconize their paths caring the living beings while achieving their goals in production.

 The prescriptions of SANFEC that we can adopt and adjust

Before entering into my personal philosophy regarding the agriculture of Bangladesh and ecology, I better glance upon a short history of the World Food Summit in 1996. During the NGO forum’s inception in the World Food Summit (11 to 17 November, 1996) in Rome, Italy (organized by FAO), a statement was endorsed by a large number of organizations and individuals in South Asia and other countries around the world. The significance of this statement was, it proposed a network on the South Asian issues of ecology and food security. The network was named “South Asian Network on Food, Ecology and Culture (SANFEC)”. This network addressed some vital issues that helped some organizations and individuals later to philosophize the trait of our agriculture. This philosophy was not new to the people, but they lacked a podium to standardize it for their pragmatic stand. One of the major understandings of SANFEC is, “Food and food production must be seen in the context of diverse cultural systems and in their relation to rich cultural practices. Food items are not simple commodities or consumer goods.”[19] It also underpins that “Food is viewed as the embodiment of material, ecological and cultural relations and these relations are brought to the central practical activities, and consequently in the policy advocacy campaigns. The bottom line is to ensure the creative ingenuity of the communities and enhancemen tof their capacities to cope with life.[20]” SANFEC considers that the food, its consumption and its security should be considered from ethical and cultural perspectives.

Therefore SANFEC proposed to bring the primary food producers such as farmers and fishers to the central position in resolving the problems of food and food sovereignty. These people are born and brought up in the mid of Nature and the sense for safeguarding ecology, ecological cycle and bio-diversity is inbred in them. Moreover SANFEC wanted to ensure a philanthropic political expression of agriculture. It acknowledged the inbred and inherent knowledge of the farmers, fishers etc and highly emblazoned the fact that “translating local knowledge into the language of formal knowledge structures can decontextualize it from the living culture and day to day practical life it embodies.”[21] So SANFEC adopted the idea from CBD (Convention of Biological Diversity) that the culture of human beings and the traits of civilizations are conveyed through local and indigenous knowledge and pragmatic and empirical knowledge can not be translated perfectly from one language to another. Needless to say that agricultural sector is not any exception in this connection.

SANFEC also wants to remove all expression of global monoculture of greed, destruction and intense egocentrism, over masculine attitude to nature and ecology and thus portrays a natural and eco-friendly consumption pattern exculpating ultra hedonism from mentality.

I am summarizing here the connotations of the agenda that SANFEC posited for the betterment of global agriculture and I personally prefer to initiate those in Bangladesh. I summarized the connotations with my own mindsets, which are written here in some points as follows:

1)      We have to oppose anthropocentric and commercialized patterns of agriculture and hence inspire to accentuate nature and ecology caring agricultural methods.

2)      We have to spread equality and justice and repel all types of violence, marginalization, racism, egocentrism and social and political instability and hence incorporate farmers, fishers, indigenous people, women, marginalized groups, untouchables, lower castes directly in mode of production and policy formulating regarding agriculture and production.

3)      We have to fulminate against the privatization and commercialization of Nature and productive resources. Therefore we have to disavow patenting of seeds, plants and life forms.

4)      We have to prevent bio-piracy and seek alternatives of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) to save the interests of the farmers of the developing and poor countries and propose to formulate national intellectual property system. Hence we have to renounce the agreements like TRIPs (The Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights), which still continues the alien values to serve  a handful people’s interests like in the colonial age.

5)      We have to initiate the localization and regionalization of food production to save the farmers from the evil grips of agribusinesses.

6)      We have to shift our agriculture from its current high input unsustainable monoculture to sustainable input diversity-based systems.

7)      We have to incept a scheme for the intactness of global bio-diversity and implant national gene banks.

8)      We have to reject the harmful biotechnology and prioritize the concept ‘bio-safety’ regarding food production.

9)      We have to care for the quality of production than simply quantity because of health concerns of human beings and other animals.

10)  We have to end the use of all pesticides and start gradual decrease of using chemical fertilizers to protect the bio-diversity.

11)  We have to stop all types of toxic dumping to save our fisheries and marine animals and plants in order to protect the ecological system.

12)  We have to build up infrastructure in locality to reserve the seeds and food grains and thus continue our production without foreign helps.

Philosophizing and spiritualizing Ecology and Agriculture as a leverage for their sustainability

The philosophy that encompasses all these twelve points (and even if we exceed thes number) infers the acknowledgment of our indigenous culture, mindset which are enrooted in our inherent spirituality. The adherence to agriculture and the practice of natural consumption in India (and naturally in Bangladesh as a former part of India) are older than 5,000 years. In this long time span we faced innumerable adversities, but never encountered any possibility of the literal obliteration of our Nature, ecology and agriculture. Human being’s ‘inner being’ can not provoke him to destroy the Nature, as it itself is the part of the totality, we call “Nature”. South Asia is the abode of magnificent secular spiritual movements. This secular spiritual feature loomed large historically in India by two great religions - Buddhism and Jainism. In these two religions, in eschatological question the judgment of God is defunct. However other religions and their syncretic modes are also here tolerant and symbiotic between Nature and men. This trait embedded in men to respect and care for others and this ‘other’ also symbolizes his/her mother, the family members, the commoners, the neighbors, the inner being, the multiple manifestations of a single being or multiplication of self-image and finally ‘our totality of surrounding’, we call ‘nature’. Therefore the South Asian ‘cultural-spiritual idiosyncrasy’ portrays man’s “self” differently than a material egoistic man. Here in some philosophies man himself is a part of God and the totality is also a part of God (or the totality of our surrounding is a manifestation of God). Therefore a man sees his reflection in other men, other animals, other life forms and also from a very wide kaleidoscope in the whole of Nature. The Hindus and the Buddhists believe in the concept of rebirth. A man, who leads a life of a man, believes in the possibilities of his reemergence through the corporeal manifestations of another man, animals, plants, even insects in his next lives. They call the process “The Cycle of Life”. So s/he will naturally have sympathy towards other living beings. A child who has lost his mother may visualize his mother’s effigy within other natural beings because of his belief system. Therefore while man doing anything, caring for other living beings remains as a concern in him always in his inner being. This philosophy of religion is iconoclastic for monolithic sybaritic culture and consumerism. Therefore our consumption pattern is obviously different from those who consider the animals, plants etc only to be the consumer goods and they have been born to be digested. But our five thousands years’ cultivation has been formed upon the spiritualism that reflects in our outlook also. It is still relevant for the preservation of natural living beings, ecology, and bio-diversity and as a whole for our Nature. The output is the possibility of a more sustainable agriculture, an anxiety free ecology and a philanthropic attitude to all living beings and the Nature.

I am an observer of Nayakrishi Andolon

As an observer of Nayakrisihi Andolon (New Agricultural Movement of Bangladesh) I wanted to understand its connotations. In fact my personal stand has been calibrated by vicarious experiences of this movement. This movement is in many respects symmetrical to the statement of SANFEC. I will only focus on the special traits of this movement, which I believe very important for the sustainability of our Nature and agriculture.

  1. This movement of natural production incorporates the farmers irrespective of gender, religion, class, caste etc and teaches them within an ambiance of joy.
  2. Its agricultural norms do not contradict the values of the traditional culture, philosophy and spirituality.
  3. It has proposed 10 principles and they are completely nature and eco-friendly.
  4. It wants to reshape the households and their living entirely as natural and eco-friendly.
  5. In order to end the use of pesticides, gradual decrease of the use of chemical fertilizers and bolster bio-diversity with multi-cropping and mixed-cropping. It also campaigns for inter-cropping, crop rotation and agro-forestry.
  6. It also campaigns to change the outlook of people to ‘lives’ and ‘living beings’.
  7. It renounces the outlook that considers the living beings like cows, poultry (domesticated and semi-domesticated animals) etc to be consumer products. They are all the members of the farming households in the eye of this movement.
  8. It prioritizes local and indigenous knowledge and asserts that household is the nodal point of bio-diversity based ecological production system.
  9. It initiated ‘Nayakrishi Vidyaghars’ (The new Agricultural Learning Centers) in different places of Bangladesh to promote its ideology based agriculture.

Conclusion

For many days I have been planning to dedicate my intellect, energy, education to promote the agriculture of Bangladesh and our wretched peasantry, who are one of the most suppressed and repressed communities in this land historically. I started to talk with the farmers and locate their problems. I glanced over the views of different agriculturalists and agricultural movements. I shared and exchanged my views with them. As I have mentioned at first, without the survival of our agriculture there is the least possibility to develop this land and I am confirmed in this fact. So it was my primary goal to set up my ideology regarding agriculture and it embraces the question of ecology eventually. From my inner compulsion I tried to read all the important features on Bangladeshi mode of production and agriculture. Then I gradually developed my outlook, which I discussed here. The second phase will start if I can start to deal these facts with others. Or who will join us to work for the agricultural development of Bangladesh considering our ever spiritually magnanimous and eco-freindly agricultural mode, if we build a podium to work on these issues seriously?

Abbreviations used in this essay:

  1. CBD = Convention of Biological Diversity
  2. DCH = Dhaka Community Hospital
  3. DNA = Deoxyribonucleic Acid
  4. GMO = Genetically Modified Organism
  5. IPR = Intellectual Property Right
  6. IRRI = International Rice Research Institute
  7. SANFEC = South Asian Network on Food, Ecology and Culture
  8. SOES = School of Environmental Studies, Jadavpur University, Calcutta
  9. TRIPs = The Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights
  10. UNEP = United Nations’ Environmental Program
  11. WHO = World Health Organization

Bibliography:

  1. Alarm against Pesticide Hazards by Farhad Mazhar, UBINIG articles; http://membres.lycos.fr/ubinig/articles.htm
  2. Arsenic Poisoning Bangladesh faces a disaster by Ziaur Rahman, News Network; 2003 edition
  3. Global Week of Action (10th  to 16th  April, 2005) setting the people’s agenda, published by UBINIG
  4. Nayakrishi Andolon;  published by Narigrantha Prabartana, 2006 edition
  5. Nayakrishi Andolon Cultivating Ananda Planting the seed of joy; published by Narigrantha Prabartana
  6. False-Linkage of Food and Population The manmade scare for corporate solutions, by Farida Akhter, published by Narigrantha Prabartana , 2005
  7. SANFEC on Food, Economy and Culture; published by Narigrantha Prabartana; 2001 edition
  8. Uncultivated Food The Missing link; SANFEC publication, 2004
  9. Hybrid Bitarka by Mizanur Rahman Apple; The quarterly Chinta, number 9-13, December, 2002

The Websites:

  1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agriculture_in_Bangladesh
  2. http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Asia-and-Oceania/Bangladesh-ECONOMY.html
  3. http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Asia-and-Oceania/Bangladesh-INCOME.html
  4. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/print/bg.html
  5. http://www.dchtrust.org/bangladesh_arsenic.htm
  6. http://www.dchtrust.org/arsenic_pollution_in_bangladesh.htm
  7. http://www.dchtrust.org/arsenic_pollution_in_groundwater_of_bangladesh.htm
  8. http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/SOUTHASIAEXT/0,,contentMDK:21178423~pagePK:2865106~piPK:2865128~theSitePK:223547,00.html
  9. http://www.angelfire.com/ak/medinet/file2.html
  10. http://membres.lycos.fr/ubinig/sparrows.htm

   11.  http://www.kantipuronline.com/kolnews.php?&nid=141910

12.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food

[1] Wikipedia: Bangladesh; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agriculture_in_Bangladesh

[2]Jute, Banglapedia. Asiatic Society of Bangladesh

[3] Encyclopedia of the Nations; http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Asia-and-Oceania/Bangladesh-ECONOMY.html, http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Asia-and-Oceania/Bangladesh-INCOME.html

[4] According to Kamal Raj it is 22%; see Remittance a significant income source; http://www.kantipuronline.com/kolnews.php?&nid=141910

[5] The exact figure is 153,546,901 (July 2008 est.), The World Factbook; https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/print/bg.html

[6] Alarm against Pesticide Hazards by Farhad Mazhar, UBINIG articles http://membres.lycos.fr/ubinig/sparrows.htm

[7] ibid

[8] See official website of the World Bank; Bangladesh: Overusing patricides in farming; http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/SOUTHASIAEXT/0,,contentMDK:21178423~pagePK:2865106~piPK:2865128~theSitePK:223547,00.html

[9] Dhaka Community Hospital’s Website, Bangladesh and Arsenic; http://www.dchtrust.org/bangladesh_arsenic.htm

[10] Rahman, Ziaur; Arsenic Poisoning Bangladesh faces a disaster; News Network; 2003 edition.

[11] Dhaka Community Hospital’s Website, Arsenic Pollution in Bangladesh; http://www.dchtrust.org/arsenic_pollution_in_bangladesh.htm

[12] Ibid, Arsenic Pollution in Groundwater of Bangladesh; http://www.dchtrust.org/arsenic_pollution_in_groundwater_of_bangladesh.htm

[13] Arsenic Contamination of drinking Water, Bangladesh the most vulnerable country, http://www.angelfire.com/ak/medinet/file2.html

[14] The Arsenic poisoning can mainly be detected through testing samples of tube-well water and human tissues-hair, nail, skin and urine. Regular intake of Arsenic at higher level through food and drinking water causes various diseases, especially skin diseases. The outcome is one of the awesome skin diseases. Most of the ingested arsenic is excreted from the body through urine, stool, skin, hair, nail and breath. In excessive intake, some amount of arsenic is deposited in tissues and inhibits cellular enzyme activities. Arsenic causes both physical and intellectual damage to the human beings. In final stage of arsenocosis patients can be attacked by Nephropathy, hepatopathy, gangrene, cancer of skin, bladder and lung - Writer

[15] Global Week of Action (10th  to 16th  April, 2005) setting the people’s agenda, published by UBINIG

[16] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food

[17] The quarterly Chinta, Hybrid Bitarka by Mizanur Rahman Apple; number 9-13, December, 2002

[18] Nayakrishi Andolon  published by Narigrantha Prabartana, 2006 edition

[19] SANFEC on Food, Economy and Culture; published by Narigrantha Prabartana; p.03,2001 edition

[20] ibid p.07

[21] Ibid p.09

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