National Farmers' Association (NFA) on Saturday said the agriculture remains the backbone of the national economy, yet warning that the sector is increasingly going under corporate control, threatening the country's food security and the rural life.
In a statement issued and discussed at its central committee meeting on Saturday, NFA said Bangladesh failed since the independence to fully organise its economy around the agriculture, despite its continued dependence on farming.
Association leaders alleged in the interests of the capitalist financial system, the agriculture is being gradually taken away from the hands of farmers themselves", claiming that agricultural input markets are now 'completely controlled by corporates', preventing small, medium-sized and indebted farmers from benefiting adequately from production.
They further alleged under the proposed US-Bangladesh trade framework, the country's agriculture sector would become 'completely import-dependent.' Citing what it described as 131 mandatory conditions, the NFA claimed that Bangladesh would be required to import around 700,000 tonnes of wheat, fish, meat, eggs, agricultural products and machinery annually from the United States or designated countries.
Now, leaders warned such measures would 'completely destroy Bangladesh's agriculture' and urged resistance against what they described as a policy-driven 'conspiracy' against farmers.
NFA presented a nine-point-demand charter, including the waiver of agricultural loans, fair prices for farm produce, increased subsidies for fertiliser, seeds, irrigation and agricultural machinery, and the establishment of a dedicated fund to compensate farmers for climate-related losses.
It also called for agricultural land reform, improved storage facilities for agricultural produce, the abolition of what it described as politically influenced agricultural card programmes, the cancellation of the proposed trade agreement, and the introduction of a comprehensive rural rationing system.
