The New Nation - Internet Edition

UNB, Dhaka

Former Agriculture Minister and Awami League leader Matia Chowdhury Thursday blamed the government for destroying country's potential cash crops following what she said prescription of two donor agencies.

"We are gradually losing our cash crops. Farmers are not showing interest in cultivating jute and sugarcane as the government shows reluctance towards these crops," she said, as experts took a fresh look at the country's economic health.

They re-appraised the economic situation based on a study titled 'Markets and Prices: Findings from a Triangular Study of Producers, Traders and Consumers'. The study findings were analyzed at a seminar organized jointly by Power and Participation Research Center (PPRC) and Commerce Ministry at the LGED Bhaban.

Finance Adviser of the caretaker government Dr Mirza Azizul Islam atended the seminar as chief guest while Agriculture Adviser Dr CS Karim as guest of honor.

PPRC executive director Hossain Zillur Rahman read out the summary of the study. Prof. Wahiduddin Mahmud and former Agriculture Minister and BNP leader MK Anwar also spoke on the state of economy. "We will have nothing to do except for using jute ropes for hanging ourselves as the government is continuously closing down the jute mills as per prescription of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF)," Matia, also a firebrand leftwing student leader of the 60's, told her audience. She also fulminated that voice of the poor farmers failed to reach the ears of the Finance and the Industries advisers of the present government

The ex-minister suggested that if the government helped the farmers, it would be good for the country to pull people up from under the poverty line.

Directly denying the allegation of the former Agriculture Minister, the Finance Adviser said his interim government did not close down the jute mills as per advice of the World Bank or the IMF. "I can swear upon God that neither the IMF nor the World Bank did uter any word for closing down the jute mills," he said. Defending his government's decision to shut down four jute mills recently, the Adviser said that since 1992, government has funneled Tk 7,500 crore into the jute sector.

"Even after taking charge of the Finance Ministry I gave Tk 300 crore to this sector. How long this could continue," he said. The Adviser apprised the audience that per-capita money income has been raised 11 percent in the last one year. "But the inflation on food-grains causing a lot of suffering to the unemployed and poor people," he said about the price rises that pose to upset monetary gains.

Reaffirming his stance against appreciation of the Taka against the US dollar, he said this would widen trade gap, reduce remitance flow and thin the foreign reserves.

Agriculture Adviser Dr CS Karim struck a note of concern that it is not far off when "we will fail to get any food- grain to import".

The saving grace here is, said the advisor, "We have made ourselves self-sufficient to face that day".

Prof. Wahiduddin Mahmud emphasized building a structure to control the market system. "But, before that, we have to understand the market Otherwise, it will be boomerang to us."