Making fallow char lands cultivable

Ensuring food security for the teeming millions of this delta has always been a challenge for policymakers. Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated countries in the world, with nearly 170 million people living in just 148,460 square kilometres. It is a remarkable achievement for the farmers, agronomists, and the relevant government agencies that Bangladesh–proving naysayers wrong– has managed to feed its people well enough. At the time of our independence, 75 per cent of people took meals two times a day. Now the picture is diametrically opposite. Currently, 75 per cent of people can afford three square meals a day. This is a signifier of a tremendous boost in agricultural output. Despite the gradual decline in arable land, crop production has increased three folds in the country since its independence due to the innovation of new varieties of crops and the introduction of technologies in the agriculture sector. Virtually no one goes hungry in this country. Not only that, the goal is now ensuring healthy, nutritious diets for the citizens.

Having said that, there is no room for complacency in this regard. The landmass is unlikely to increase, and the population is burgeoning. The challenge of feeding the people is always a tight rope walk, and the threat of food shortage is looming on the horizon. Bangladesh needs to utilise every inch of its cultivable land.

Against this backdrop, we wholeheartedly welcome the government’s plan to increase cop production in the fallow lands in the char areas of the country. To implement the plan the authorities concerned have undertaken a project titled “Expansion of modern agricultural technology suitable for char areas of Bangladesh.” A recently published report of The Business Post stated that the government has taken the initiative to bring 101,892 hectares of fallow lands under cultivation. Project proposals have recently been sent to the Planning Commission. The Department of Agricultural Extension has taken up the project, which will cost Tk 228 crore, in 121 Upazilas of 35 districts of the country. Under this project, 121 facility sheds will be constructed. The DAE will train farmers in 4,281 batches. The report says that the project will commercialise agriculture and lead to the betterment of women and youth entrepreneurs’ groups when implemented. According to DAE Director General Md Benojir Alam, “The project’s goal is to increase the production of crops suitable for the country’s char areas, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and better the local farmers’ socio-economic conditions, in the long run.” Alam further said that char areas are quite suitable for cultivating improved mustard varieties and modern maize varieties.

According to experts, char areas in Bangladesh are expanding every year and will continue as silts are being deposited on riverbeds. About 2.5 billion tonnes of sediment flow through the three mighty rivers -- the Padma, Brahmaputra, and Meghna -- each year and deposit on the riverbeds. As a result, many new shoals are emerging in the country. The char lands are particularly fertile. In many cases, people plough the land once or twice, and after that, they spread the seeds. There is no need for irrigation and fertiliser, or insecticide. Bangladesh cannot afford to let fallow land in the char areas remain uncultivated. Experts have been stressing for a long time that agronomists should come forward with their innovative plans to develop char lands to introduce crop farming there. So, the above-mentioned plan has come at just the right time.

The farming community of Bangladesh is more prosperous than ever before. Uses of modern technology, farm mechanisation, and crop variety innovations have contributed to the digital evolution of modern-day agriculture in Bangladesh. Farmers are producing high-value commodities like vegetables and fruits. Bulls and oxen were once the sole means of preparing the land, threshing paddy, and other crops. Now, these activities are carried out using machines. Tractors are being used to till the land, small machines to thresh grains. There should be efforts to ensure that the char dwellers too enjoy the fruits of the revolution in agriculture. When this happens, the country will benefit as a whole.