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The
Context
Out of 64 administrative districts of Bangladesh,
about two dozens in the north and the south of the country are seriously
vulnerable to periodic food deficits due primarily to defavorable agricultural
production cycles meaning existence of fewer cropping intensity that turns at
times into open and near-famine conditions in the proposed study areas because
of lacking of work for the majority agro-based day labourers. Reorientation of
land ownership due to regular river-bank erosion and also due to natural
calamities that multiples new landless farmers, worsens the situations of
tenants-landowners relationship and ultimately disfavours the higher cropping
intensity that creates a near-famine situation (locally called it MONGA).
On top of that, disasters like floods, drought, makes the overall situation more
crisis-prone. Furthermore, due to long-existed situation of very low rate of
industrialization in the region the formal job market is very limited and almost
non-expansionary.
The study area (Roumari
Upazila of Kurigram District) lies along both sides of the
Brahmaputra-Jamuna River and its tributaries (in the north) and distributaries
(in the south). Specifically, the drainage basins of the Brahmaputra-Jamuna
River system and the Teesta River, a tributary flowing through Rangpur, Kurigram,
Nilphamari and Lalmonirhat districts in the north are victims of food deficit
(cause by losing of purchasing capacity). Different studies including the
Household Income and Expenditure Surveys (HIES) of Government of Bangladesh
statistical office, Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, have revealed that the
extent (proportion of poor people) and depth (distance from poverty line
income/consumption of poor households) of poverty in the north and the
north-eastern parts of Bangladesh are higher than the national averages. Still
worse is the fact that scarcity of jobs and food deficit in the lean months is
more or less a regular phenomenon in these regions, and turn unbearably acute at
times of floods and crop failures. Moreover, a good number of geomorphological
and hydraulic studies of Bangladesh have reported that over the past 200 years
the bank lines of the Brahmaputra-Jamuna River have moved east and west by about
20 kilometers causing serious damage to local ecosystem, and it still continues
to do so. Despite this precarious geographic instability and economic
vulnerability of the region, very little in terms of better coping ability of
the poor could be done and the geo-environmental impacts of the events yet to be
studied properly so far although the government and NGOs have been working there
since the independence of the country.
To cope with the
situation community based food storage system may be a crucial solution in
addition to create income generation in non-formal sectors. Marketing support is
considered as an essential part in supporting and raising the income of the
target group because they usually do not get fair price of their artisan works
in the local markets. Considering all the issues the action research project is
designed to address the issues in a sustainable manner.
PROJECT PURPOSE
The purpose of
the food security project is to create employment generation opportunity and to
ensure supply of food round the year, especially, during the crisis months.
Since food deficit is a recurring phenomenon in the project areas due to
scarcity of jobs in agriculture sector during the lean months, there is a
necessary for creating jobs in non-crop agriculture and agro-processing
businesses and off-farm services. Therefore, the overall purpose of the project
is to ensure the food security and poverty alleviation, and to establish a
community food bank, an outlet to join the target group in the fair trade
movement by the end of the project that will open the new door to the HEI in
thinking of policy issues by changing behaviour and attitudes towards the
existing development paradigm. Also, gross awareness about economic prospects
and productivity enhancement through farm and off-farm activities would be taken
place because of the innovative nature of the projects. It could create a
spread-over and spill-over effect around the sub-region and among other
stakeholders in this area such as other NGOs, social and financial institutions.
Target
Groups
The target
groups of the project are the victims of MONGA and the natural disasters
cause by the regular river bank erosion, floods and drought. It includes
landless and the asset-less daily wage workers and the divorced/discarded women,
widows and orphans, plus the small and marginal deficit farmers (owing less than
0.5 acre of land) who were identified through a baseline survey in the target
area.
Project
Location
Two villages
from Roumari Thana (Police Station) of Kurigram District have been selected for
the food security project. The project area located on the eastern bank of the
River Brahmaputra-Jamuna adjoining the Indian state of Meghalaya, and as such
they are economically detached from the main land except joined by a strip of
land with the Jamalpur district of Bangladesh. The area is situated at an
inaccessible tip, administrative services are naturally scanty. In addition,
prospects for diversified agriculture are also bleak although the imperative for
rapid socio-economic upliftment of the region is urgent.
Project
Components
In view of
the historical backwardness of the region, the present action project has been
designed with an integrated approach that includes the following four
components.
1. Set up a
Community Food Bank;
2. Skills
development training;
3. Input
support as like, micro credit, etc. for income generation; and
4. Open an
outlet in Dhaka city
The component 1
of the project envisages building a buffer stock of food grains – Community
Food Bank (CFB) - at community level to provide food against seasonal
deficits in the lean months (mid-September to mid-November) of the year or
during disaster period. The CFB will keep deposit of food from the beneficiaries
and back it during the crisis period. The depositors may withdraw their food in
terms of cash and have the provision in getting interest. Above all, it will
acts as like a bank. However, two branches will be set up in two study villages
and a central godown will require to stock of foods. The CFB will introduce
different types of schemes from the target group, such as collecting of
mandatory weekly savings that will use to collect foods to deposit in the name
of the beneficiaries. Hence, deposition of food is to be convertible in market
price.
The scope for
self-employment of the poor will be expanded by conducting skill training
programme to enable them to acquire necessary skill through hands-on tips
helping them choose remunerative jobs or organize self-employment under the
component 2.
Component 3,
liberal micro-credit will be provided to the target people to enable them to
exploit their newly acquired skill by engaging in suitable jobs of their choice
like handicrafts, poultry, fishery, livestock, etc.
Component 4, an
outlet will set up to ensure in getting fair price of the products made by the
artisan beneficiaries which would also ensure the expansion of market of their
product.
Project team
The core members
of the project are the three coordinators from the three partner institutions.
They are:
- Professor
Dr. M. Nazrul Islam, Department of Geography and Environment, Jahangirnagar
University, Bangladesh (Lead partner).
- Dr.
Barbara T. Rumsby, Department of Geography, University of Hull, United
Kingdom, (HEI partner).
-
Rathindranath Pal, Executive Director, Unnayan Uddog, Bangladesh (NGO
partner).
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