Farming by landless on the rise: study
Landless people are increasingly getting access to the country's land market for farming on the back of landlords' growing engagement in the formal sector and tendency to go abroad, said an economist yesterday.
Binayak Sen, a research director of the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), said upper or mid-level farmers who were engaged in farming in the past are leaving their land to the land market.
“It has created an opportunity for the landless to get land for farming,” he said.
He spoke while presenting a paper on the “Rise of landless tenancy in Bangladesh” at the BIDS Research Almanac 2018 at the Lakeshore Hotel in Dhaka.
According to the paper, 17.7 percent rural households were under landless tenancy in 2014, up from 11.9 percent in 2000 and 9.3 percent in 1988.
Sen said the landless who were working as farm labourers previously enter the land market either through share-cropping or fixed rent.
“More importantly, the percentage of landless tenancy is increasing significantly,” he said, adding that it has more impact on poverty alleviation.
The paper also showed 47.5 percent of cultivated land was under tenancy in rural areas in 2014, up from 39.8 percent in 2008 and 32.08 percent in 2000.
Sen also added that microfinance and alternative banking services have created a significant impact on the landless.
People who have access to microfinance, alternative banking services such as mobile banking and agent banking or have access to power tillers or irrigation facilities are entering the land tenancy market even if they are landless, he said.
Mohammad Mainul Hoque, research fellow of the think tank, presented a paper on “Assessing competition in the onion market of Bangladesh”.
He said the onion market appears to be competitive and the role of traders' association on price movement is largely non-existent.
Huge price movement in the onion market occurs because of seasonal demand, lean period, and supply shocks from the international market, Hoque said.
The paper showed onion growers get the highest percentage of margin, at 43.9 percent. Retailers take home 6.25 percent and wholesalers get 8.19 percent of the profit.
Mohammed Helal Uddin, an associate professor of the economics department at the University of Dhaka, however, said the onion market, despite being competitive, bore a collusive behaviour.
For example, he said, when onion price increases by 10 percent in India, it exceeds 15 percent in Bangladesh.
When prices go up in India, it goes up in Bangladesh instantly, but when it falls in the neighbouring country, its impact in the Bangladesh market is observed very belatedly, Uddin said.
Kazi Ali Toufique, research director of the BIDS; M Asaduzzaman, a former research director, and Quazi Shahabuddin, a former director general, also spoke in the session.
Earlier, Mashiur Rahman, economic affairs adviser to the prime minister, opened the conference. Khan Ahmed Sayeed Murshid, director general of the BIDS, and Kajal Islam, additional secretary to the planning division, were present.
