By Shahidhul Islam
BARCIK, a rights-based development organization, organized a dialogue to mark the World Food Day-2021 recently in Rajshahi. More than 300 farmers both male and female from various areas in the Barind tract participated in dialogue.
National award winning farmers Yousuf Ali Mollah and Nur Muhammad while sharing their experience as well as demanding pension scheme for aged farmers said, ‘The present government is very much positive towards protecting the legitimate rights of the farmers. But farmers are still deprived of their rights. They have been producing foods to feed the whole nation but their contribution are not recognized.’
They went on saying, ‘Government employees receive pension after they retired from their service, for their contribution. The farmers too have been providing services to the nation throughout their life. Therefore, they too deserve to get pension from the government. The aged farmers are neglected and they find difficulty to maintain their life in this stage. If such pension scheme is introduced they will be benefited.’ Officer Abdul Ahad, social activists Shima Khatun and Somrat Raihan also spoke in the dialogue demanding to fulfill the demands of the farmers.
The other discussants while addressing the dialogues said that farmers deserve the rights of getting all requisite privileges. There is no alternative to protect their interests as a whole. They are boosting productions to meet rising demands of increased population in the country.
During his keynote presentation, Shahidul Islam, Regional Coordinator of BARCIK, puts forward a demand of initiating pension scheme for the sixty plus farmers for their food security. In the wake of abnormal declining natural resources like native crop seeds, fish and bird species and other wildlife, conservation of natural resources has become indispensable for facing the adverse impacts of climate change.
The development activist opined that many native crops and vegetable varieties are gradually declining. Many of the native fish species, particularly the small indigenous ones, are on the verge of extinction due to various reasons. Importance should be given to capacity building to address climate change in the region with special reference to conservation of drought tolerant species.