Financing eco-friendly agriculture
Modern farming practices and development works have imposed tremendous pressure on environmental security and sustainability
Shishir Reza and Sharmin Akter
Bangladesh is on the way of middle income country by the year of 2021 where Agriculture would play a vital role for food and economy. Food demand is mounting with the explosive escalating of population. To meet the growing up food demand, haphazard uses of chemical pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers are increasing alarmingly.
Modern farming practices and development works have imposed tremendous pressure on environmental security and sustainability. Even farmers are involved in commercial cultivation and contract farming with national and international companies. International agencies counsel local farmers to use hybrid seeds, pesticides, fertilizers, water pulling out machine formed by them. In general modern agriculture has brought good for farmers. But the existing crisis higher amount of methane gas production, killing both beneficial and harmful pest, less pollination, arsenic pollution, and nutritional pollution, skin diseases of farmers, soil erosion and environmental degradation emerges insurgency.
Farmers employ detrimental agrochemicals in crops land without considering the beneficial pest protection and pollination. Potash, sulphate, calcium carbonate, triples super phosphate are normally used in field. For potato and egg-plant they apply carbendajin, wantap-50, wansilva 10, quinfis-25%, denitol, festaq 2.5, melathion, corden, methoxicore, bydrin, dibrone, diajinon 10, lebasid and dimecron. Fenom, theovit, nexin, sevin, diplerox, monotuf 40, thiojen have been used for sponge gourd, ribbed gourd, teasle gourd, sweet gourd, cucumber, cabbage, cauliflower and Hyacinth bean. In the same way, for Aush, Amon and Boro polivit-500, kiridan-5, crijol-5, basudin-10, topsin mithyle, ripcord, dursburn 20 and sebin-60 are used.
Such types of chemicals kill harmful pest damri poka, bolta, mazra poka, leda poka, Gandhi poka, bag, kalo poka, aphids, small caterpillar, leafhoppers, cabbage maggots, whileflies which are very essential for pollination.
But there is an alternative of encouraging and financing green manures for eco-friendly agriculture. The finance scheme of Bangladesh Bank was 1.1 billion taka in FY-15 and 1.6 billion taka in FY-16; at the same 0.2 billion taka on organic manures from slurry; Paper waste recycling in FY 16 was 0.2 billion taka; effluent treatment plant FY 16 was 58 billion taka; green industry in FY 16 was 400 billion taka; safe working environment for textiles in FY 16 was 35.7 billion taka and those areas of strategies and financial strength are escalating day by day. The organic fertilizers green wastes, coconut cake, oil cakes, sludge, coal ash, wood ash, paddy husk, castor cake, mustard cake, groundnut cake, linseed cake, neem cake, fish meal, water hyacinths, cow dung, vegetable materials, stool of livestocks, weeds of big tree, farmyard manures have a possible upshot help in eco-friendly agricultural production. Apart from that, farmers may employ indigenous pesticides from neem pata, tamak pata, guegenta pata, nishinda pata, dhuturar pata, bish katali pata, mehogonir fol to protect beneficial pests and ensure pollination security.
In this context, financing on green manures should be considered by environment-friendly endeavors, management of environmental and social risks of the enterprises to promote green growth. If the concerned authority take steps to finance more on organic manures at grass-roots level the development would be society and people oriented.
Financing by state owned banks, private commercial banks, non-bank financial institutions on green manures projects may escalate eco-friendly growth.
The writers are contributors to
The Independent
