Rice Procurement by Govt: Lists of farmers raise questions
Genuine farmers, sharecroppers left out of govt lists in the North; many non-farmers, influentials, political people on the lists
Two government lists of farmers as Boro paddy suppliers are not what they look like.
Many of them are anything but farmers. They include shopkeepers, a contractor and even a former city councillor engaged in a profession other than paddy cultivation.
The Daily Star found this in a random field survey based on the lists of Rajshahi Sadar and Bogura Sadar upazilas.
The lists prepared as part of the government initiative to procure 1.5 lakh tonnes of paddy at a fair price directly from marginalised farmers left out sharecroppers.
But many farmers, who have cultivated Boro but do not have surplus paddy to sell, made it to the lists. They said nobody talked to them before listing their names.
One of the lists includes someone who left paddy farming 27 years ago and does not have a farmer’s card.
Nur Mohammed Mollah, a former councillor of ward 26 under Rajshahi City corporation, is on the Rajshahi Sadar upazila’s list of 48 people.
“For the last four years, we are not cultivating paddy. Now we are doing fish farming,” said Mollah, a resident of Meherchandi area.
He used to lease out his land to sharecroppers to grow paddy and that was a few years back. No official contacted him before making this list, he said recently.
Shamimul Islam, metropolitan agriculture officer of Boalia area, said he provided the food department with the list of farmers following directives from higher officials.
“A few of the farmers may have changed their profession that we missed to follow,” he said, adding that he would look into the matter.
“The number of those wrongly identified as farmers will not be more than two or three,” he further said.
Alam Khan, 56, is a shopkeeper but he is listed as a farmer of Dhaowakola village in Bogura Sadar upazila.
The villagers said Alam has not been cultivating his land for many years now; he has a stationery shop at Mahasthan Bazar.
Visiting his home on Saturday, one of these reporters found no sign of harvested paddy or straw like that in the houses of farmers in the village.
Shown the list, Alam said, “I stopped cultivating my land about 27-28 years ago after my father had died. I have land but I lease it to sharecroppers. I don’t know how and who listed me for selling paddy to the local supply depot.”
The list prepared on May 21 even says Alam’s paddy production target was about five tonnes.
But he has only two bighas of cropland which can yield maximum 40 maunds (1.50 tonnes) of paddy in the Boro season.
Alam said he has no famer’s card, and the list does not carry his national ID card number while it bears the ID card numbers of other listed farmers.
Contacted, Sub-Assistant Agriculture Officer Mokhlesur Rahman, who listed Alam as a farmer, told The Daily Star that he had filed the names of 10.
Most probably, he said two of them were listed mistakenly. “I am not sure about the two farmers.”
The list of Bogura Sadar upazila names 295 people.
Visiting eight farmers in Dhaowakola and Gokul villages under Bogura Sadar, seven farmers said they did not know that their names were on the list. Six farmers said they have already sold their surplus produce in the local market at lower prices.
“I did not know my name was on the list. So, I already sold my surplus five maunds of rice,” said Emran Hossain, one of the listed farmers of Gokul village.
These correspondents interviewed four listed farmers of Shakharia village of Bogura on Sunday and all of them said they did not have enough paddy to sell.
“We have 72 decimals of cropland. We have received 25 maunds of paddy this year by leasing out that land. We are not able to sell paddy; we have to buy more for our six family members,” said Ranjana, wife of Mostafizar Rahman, an ailing farmer who is on the list.
Of the 1.5 lakh tonnes of paddy the government planned to buy, 5,586 tonnes would be from Bogura district with 295 tonnes from Sadar upazila, district food control office sources said.
And 2,012 tonnes would be from Rajshahi district with 48 tonnes from Sadar upazila, they added.
There are 7.5 lakh Boro farmers in Bogura who produced more than 7.5 lakh tonnes of paddy this season, and 93 percent of that has already been harvested, according to the Department of Agricultural Extension.
SM Saiful Islam, district controller of food, told The Daily Star, they bought 175 tonnes of paddy out of the 5,586 tonnes from Bogura.
Asked about the anomalies in the government list, Anamul Haque, an agriculture officer of Bogura Sadar, on Monday said they also found “some mistakes”.
“We have found some mistakes in the list. So, we have decided to visit the houses of farmers and prepare a fresh list within a week,” he said.
According to a senior official at the Department of Agricultural Extension in Dhaka, an agriculture officer depends on the names sent by the local union parishad chairman for preparing a list.
That’s why many influential and political people are on the list, he added.
“Mostly influential locals and farmers belonging to the ruling party and acquainted with the local representatives are the beneficiaries of the government initiatives,” he said, preferring not to be named.
According to the domestic food grain procurement policy 2017, an upazila food grain procurement and monitoring committee is comprised of eight members with the UNO as its president and upazila food controller as member-secretary.
The members include the agriculture officer who is assigned to collect the names of farmers; two food officers; a farmer’s representative and the president of the upazila rice millers’ association. The lawmaker of that constituency acts as an adviser.
Azizur Rahman, UNO of Bogura Sadar upazila, told The Daily Star yesterday, “The lists were prepared by sub-assistant agriculture officers. We have to depend on them because they have close relationship with ground-level farmers.
“After this newspaper’s queries, we checked the lists and found some anomalies. We have already communicated with the alleged sub-assistant agriculture officers. And they felt guilty and promised to provide a fresh list of genuine farmers.
“We will take action against the officers who made the mistakes. There was no political pressure while preparing the list. It was just carelessness of the officers who made the lists.”
Rajshahi-2 lawmaker Fazle Hossain Badsha said he didn’t know whether any farmers’ list was prepared in the city areas.
He said he would look into it.