Village power structure : a constraint toward increasing agricultural productivity ( A case study of two village in Dhamrai up-zilla)

Abstract

Bangladesh is primarily an agricultural based country. Without rapid change and growth in agriculture there can be hardly any rural or national development, nor can there be any significant reduction in poverty or unemployment. Since the last two decades thl'lgovernment has been promoting the new "seed-fertilizer_ water technology to increase the rate ot agricultural production. But the performance so for haa not very encouraging. One of the ~ajor socio-economic constraints in aChieving Ii higher rate of gro~th in agricultural sector is the village power structure whiCh dominate nIl economic activities in the rural area. Therefore, it is necessary to assess the role of the village power structure on the delivery of agricultural inputs. The present study ,attempts to look at the ma8Jlitude of the village socio-eeonomic power on the access to the meana of production. It has been found in various studies that ~ultiple factors are involved in determining the base of power in the village. No single factor ia adequate tor an analysis of power hierarchy in the villa~e. But. ncyertheless. power within the village is closely ~sBociated with landownership. The objective of the present study is to investi0atc the relationship of accesa and ownership of resources with village power ~tructure in the perspective of agricultural productivity of different landholding (operotin~) groups. The study has been carried out in the village of Kalia and Borochandil of Dhamnai up-zilla. In the study urea the distribution of big farmers (4 acres and above), scalI farmers (2.59 to 3.99 acres), subsistence farmers (0.5 to 2.49 acres) Bod landless (less than 0.499 acre) were~.6 percent, 13.8 percent. 37.9 percent and landless 33.6 percent respectively. Nearly 80 percent of the farmers survcyed used high yielding variety seed. Only 16 out of 96 subsistence farmers used IIYV Deed available from BADe. On the other hand, 25 (67.81%) out of 37 big farmers using high yielding variety had access to seed available from BADe. Out of a total of 96 nubsistence farmers, only 10.4 percent received agricultural credit. The proportion of small and big farmers using credit were 25.7 and 56.8 percent respectively. In total 39 farmers expressed satisfaction with the services of input delivery agencies. among them 66.7 percent belong to big farmers group. So, it ia clear from the present analyais that the benefit of institutional support was mainly enjoyed by the farmer belonging to higher landholding group. It was also observed that'persons holding n position in the village power structure such as UP Chairnan. Members and others who contested lor these positions as well as the traditional rural lenders (Mntbor) are also from higher landholding group. Therefore, it may be concluded from above presentation that those who control the village power structure are nostly benefited trofl 'institutional input deliveries. • It \rias also found in the study that although the SllIall and subsistence farmers had limited access to the institutional input delivery s,ystem their productivity per aere wae higher than tbe larger landholding groups. For overell increase in agricultural production tthere is a need for optiIJUMuse of available land through rational use of agricultural inputs. buch action would be possible if farmers with higher productivity are given easy access to the inputs. ~be existing village power structure is acting as a constraint towards rational distribution of inputs and increase in agricultural productivity. On the basis of experience of present study recomaendntions have been made to undertake specific policy decisions for the supply of agricultural inputs.