Rice Bank: Hope for the poor
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| Rice Bank Container |
They
have no cash, so they don't go to any commercial bank. They live hand-to-mouth
and face monga (times of fewer available job opportunities for rural workers)
several times round the year. Once they had to face difficulty during their
monga period and borrowed money from local money lenders with high interest
rate to overcome the crisis. But, many of them are now overcoming monga without
taking any loan. They are building rice banks – with most important asset,
rice.
Extremely
poor people of different monga prone areas at Teesta and Dharla river basin of
five upazilas in Lalmonirhat district deposit their produced rice in the rice
bank during the monsoon period and they get it back during their bad times
locally called monga period.
The general concept of rice bank is
to make rice available for extreme-poor households during lean and disaster
period. A total of 10-20 poor households in a community who are suffering from
food insecurity will from and own this rice bank. RDRS provides rice to this
rice bank for one time as grant, where the member will borrow rice from this
rice bank during lean period and return rice to their rice bank during
harvesting period, so they can borrow rice again during monga. It helps the
particular household family members not to go hungry during lean period. The
members have absolute ownership of this bank and its rice with the condition
that they have to return the equal amount of rice (with some extra like 5 kg
per 50 kg for maintenance and weight loss) during next harvesting period.
A member, Abu Bakkor Siddique at
Purbo Boruya village in Lalmonirhat sadar upazila said, that they built a rice
bank in the village with 25 members who are identified as ultra-poor people.
“We the members of the rice bank deposit rice during the monsoon period and we
take it during our bad times. The rice bank in our village has been playing an
important role in the last two years,” he said.
Milon Bshwa, another poor farmer of
the village said “before we had to take loan money from local money lenders
with high interest rate. Because of the rice bank, we no longer need to lend
money” he said.
Rubol Chandro Roy another member of
Tajpur village rice bank said, “I and all 25 members of the rice bank getting
output. We deposit 64 Kgs rice in the rice bank during the harvesting season
and we get 70 Kgs rice during the monga period. The members of the rice bank
are increasing day by day in our village”.
General secretary of Tajpur rice
bank, Pran Krishno Chandro Roy said that it is necessary to build rice bank in
every village by for the extremely poor people to overcoming their monga
crisis.
Lalmonirhat sadar upazila
agriculture officer Mohammad Nuruzzaman explained the operation of rice banks.
The vulnerable households in the community can from a group to establish and
implement rice bank in the community. A total of 10 to 20 vulnerable households
may become the members of a rice bank. The members will be the owner of that
particular rice bank and they will form one executive committee comprising 2 to
3 members among the general members who will take proper care of this bank and
run the bank the right way. The executive committee will select one member, who
will store 1-2 ton rice in his/her house. The bank will decide through an
agreement which month and date they will borrow rice, and which month and date
they will return rice to their bank. A member of the rice bank owners will
borrow 50 kg rice and and return 55 kg. The extra 5 kg is to cut cover the
maintenance cost and compensate handling and weight loss.
Md. Faisal Ibne Mizan, an
Agriculture Officer of NGO RDRS said, the project was initiated the assistance
by a local partner RDRS –major funding was done through donation by
philanthropic Bangladeshi individuals living aboard.
The Agriculture and Environment
Coordinator of RDRS, Mamunur Rashid said that the purpose of rice bank is to
encourage people for savings by enhancing food security the monga period. This
protects them from selling assets, selling advance labour, borrowing money from
moneylenders with high interest rates, taking paddy from rich people with a
condition to return double the amount during next harvesting period. All these
cumulatively keep them away from debts and consequently protect them from
failing in to the various cycle of monga as well as any disaster during lean
period.
“The rice bank program in the
community can be treated as a sustainable model, as it requires only one time
support at the beginning of the program. Any donor can support it by providing
paddy at the beginning of the program and then the program will continue year
after year. If there is no donor support, the members of this rice bank can
store rice in there bank during harvesting period and may be able to maintain
it accordingly. After establishment of these rice banks, it requires just only
to follow-up the program by the executive committee in order to keep it in the
right track,” he said.
The Development Programme Manager of
RDRS in Lalmonirhat Ziaul Islam said, through rice bank, rural poor households
have gotten access to food in lean period in a sustainable way.
Food security is enhanced among the
rice bank member households during lean period for which they are now able to
avoid moneylender and also to avoid selling labour in advance with a very low
wage. Government of Bangladesh may consider the rice bank concept as an
alternative model for its effective and sustainability.
