The New Nation - Internet Edition

WHEN the flood-hit small and marginal farmers are in dire necessity of ready cash or soft loans in order to resume cultivation, when their outstanding loans, if any, need either be forgiven or repayment of the same deferred for longer period, it is reported in the media that usurers and some NGOs that have turned usurers are pressurising the farmers in Kurigram district to pay back their loans.

The farmers are compelled reportedly to flee from their houses to avoid pressure from the NGOs and local usurers. According to the report, they borrowed money on unusually high rate of interests. But their crops have either roten under stagnant floodwater or have simply been washed away. Naturally, the farmers are passing through a hard time and are not able to pay back their loans.

Now, the farmers are not in any position to resume their cultivation, needless to say about repayment of loans. They have neither received any substantial help from the government, the report said. Finding no other way, they flee away from their houses to escape harassment from the money lenders. As a result, uncertainty looms large over mending of their homesteads, rehabilitation of farming and all that

A near-famine (monga) situation exists in certain poverty-pockets of the greater Rangpur and Dinajpur districts, especially in the flood-prone areas of Kurigram over a certain period of time of the year. The small and marginal farmers usually do not have sufficient land holdings of their own; they work as sharecroppers as well. And whatever land they may have, are not economically viable. They do not have on-farm or off-farm employment opportunities for most part of the year. Moreover, they usually do not have easy access to agro-credits from the government In such an adverse situation, they go to the usurers or NGOs to borrow money on very unfavourable terms. They are even compelled to mortgage whatever landed properties they may have which they are not able to get back usually. This is how the process of their impoverishment continues to push them to the teeming millions of landless and unemployed masses. The poverty-stricken farmers continue to remain in abject poverty. They need to be protected from the exploitation of the money lenders and the accompanying pauperisation process.

The near-famine situation of the region calls for urgent atention. The Chief Adviser and the Army Chief recently expressed their concern about the poverty of the people there. Now, it is hoped that the authority will address the problem with all the seriousness the situation demands. We beseech the government to initiate a process of bringing about a permanent solution to the long standing problem and a radical change in the lot of the people of the region.