4.a) Impact an small farmers
The small farmers who, with their families, make up about
two thirds of the whole population, have been the centre of
attention in the Academy's past activities. The situation
of this group has improved considerably over the past ten
years. They benefited from the work of the cooperatives which
freed them from the moneylenders' influence, arranged the
supply of Inputs and services, especially tractors, and, in
recent years, irrigation pumps. The rural administration programme
made the public services available to the people in the village
and the intensive training programme provided the technical
knowledge necessary for modern farming and the proper use
of modern inputs by the peasant. Thanks to the Rural Works
Programme, they could make use of their spare time to earn
some extra income and improve the infrastructure of their
community. In recent years, the introduction of Winter irrigation
made it possible to cultivate a third crop and thus increase
agricultural production and income considerably. While, in
general, the Comilla approach proved to be very successful
in improving the living conditions of the small peasants,
some points are still waiting for change. During the initial
period of the Academy's work, the small farmers, by definition,
were more or less subsistence farmers. It was justified, therefore,
that the cooperative system put relatively little emphasis
an the marketing of agricultural products. This situation
has changed ,n the ....time. The production has increased
with the introduction of improved varieties and fertilizers
and the third crop during the winter adds to the amount harvested
which now exceeds the home consumption to quite an extent.
This calls for an extension of the activities in marketing
which again depends, to a considerable extent, an the development
of storage facilities. The construction of these at farm,
village and central cooperative level is one of the great
tasks facing the cooperative system in future. Only sufficient
storage facilities will prevent high losses and ensure a continuous
supply to mills, etc.
Much money has been spent in order to bring about the development
of rural areas, even to the point that critics label the Comilla
scheme as too expensive. In view of the living conditions
of the small peasants, this was probably not only justified.
but unavoidable at the beginning. After all, rural development
is rightly considered by the Academy as an investment affair.
Secondly, the introduction of new technologies will be very
difficult if the small peasants are requested, from the very
beginning. to pay for the inputs. Their income exceeds the
subsistence level by such a small margin that they cannot
take risks. Until the success of a new invention has become
obvious, it has to be supplied free of charge. Otherwise,
the introduction process will be very slow.
On the other hand, all subsidies should be stopped as early
as possible. Then the new method has been introduced and the
peasants enjoy the benefits of the resulting higher yield,
they can be expected to spend part of their additional gain
an the input. In this way only will the public get back part
of its investment and be able to reinvest it in other projects.
Subsidies are usually a poor method of helping people because
they tend to be discriminating. Supply of irrigation water
almost free of cost after the period of introduction provides
unnecessary additional funds to those who are lucky to have
a tube well in ad addition to the income resulting from the
increased yields, while many others do not get anything, neither
tube well water, nor a subsidy price for it. Subsidies beyond
the point at which they are necessary are poor economics and
tend to spoil the people because they reduce initiative and
develop the notion of the state as "rich uncle."
while it is difficult to define exactly up to what time subsidies
are necessary and when they can be withdrawn, it seems that
they are often granted beyond necessity and a careful consideration
of their usefulness could save considerable amounts of money.
Much emphasis has been laid an training in the Comilla approach.
As a matter of fact, the integration of training in all the
other activities is perhaps the most important feature of
the approach. However, it should be discussed whether the
balance between classroom training and practical demonstration
meets the requirements. The bottleneck consists perhaps in
finding people who are willing to do the practical demonstration
in the fields. The reluctance of trained personnel to do "dirty"
work is proverbial. To overcome this in future, it would perhaps
be necessary to lay more emphasis an youth programmes. Training
the youth, i.e., the future master farmers, cooperative managers,
etc., would be an investment in the future which might be
very rewarding.
The main emphasis of the cooperatives, up to now, was an
savings, credit and supply. The future work could perhaps
be shifted somewhat more towards direct cooperation to increase
production. Experiments with cooperative farming have had
limited success only. But this should not stop experimentation
along these lines. Joint decision making of the cooperatives
an the key factors influencing the production (type of seed,
amount of fertilizer, sowing and planting time, amount and
time of irrigation, etc.) would perhaps help to improve the
performance of the less qualified farmers. The lesson of the
Egyptian land reform cooperatives will be of interest in this
regard. For some products, a sort of vertical integration
might be applicable, for instance, in the case of crops sold
to the cold storage. Such a type pf Cooperation for productive
purposes might be easier to introduce than full fledged cooperative
farming. A field in which cooperation for productive purposes
has already started is irrigation. The scope could probably
be extended to a considerable extent, for instance, if tube
wells which, so far, are installed by the Government and supplied
for a nominal charge could, some time after introduction,
be purchased by the village cooperative and paid out of the
increased income as a result of irrigation. In this way, the
Government would get back part of its investment in a sort
of revolving fund which could bring benefits to other farmers
as well.
So far, the development in agriculture as well as the introduction
of high yielding varieties and fertilization and the extension
of the cropped area by winter irrigation led to an increase
in rice production. fortunately, the country, under peaceful
conditions, can expect to achieve a self sufficient rice production
in a not too distant future. As soon as self sufficiency is
achieved, part of the area under rice cultivation has to be
diverted to other crops to avoid a surplus in rice. This diversification
of the cropping pattern is a difficult process which needs
long and careful preparation. In order to avoid difficulties,
it seems indicated, in the near future, to intensify the experiment
in research of alternative crops. Not only should other suitable
crops be tested, but such side effects like capital and skill
requirements, market possibilities, storage and transport
requirements, impact and risks, employment and income, food
habits, etc., have to be investigated as well. As such research
is very time consuming, an early start is advisable.
After ten years of practical work in the Kotwali Thana,
one might want to do some research an the cooperative System
developed. Especially the plans to establish the Comilla System
in other Tnanas require some knowledge of the principles of
the system. Oho are the cooperative managers and model farmers,
sociologically speaking, and what are the causes for success
and failure of villages cooperatives? Is it possible to elaborate
some prerequisites for successful cooperatives In this case,
work in other Thanas would be facilitated by concentration
an such villages which fulfil these prerequisites and. therefore,
are likely to yield favourable results. 1n recent times, some
dynamics in the village structure have been observed. While
nothing concrete is known, it seems that the established leadership
pattern is challenged by young educated people in the village.
Such developments are of great importance for the cooperatives
and need careful and early studies to find out the type and
possible implications. On the basis of the knowledge pained,
it will be possible to make decisions an how to integrate
the emerging new pattern of leadership into the rural development
activities and how to adjust the cooperative and administrative
institutions to the developments in the society.
These comments do not reduce the effectiveness of the Academy's
project, especially if compared with other schemes for rural
development. Looking into these problems seems the more necessary
as, regardless of all benefits the cooperatives have brought
to villagers after ten years only, in about 5O per cent of
the villages a cooperative exists, and only about one third
of the cultivators are members. Motivation and aspiration
of the peasants are, to quite an extent, still hidden in the
dark.
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