lecture 7: urban & regional planning (risk mitigation concept)

Welcome to Lecture 01to Lecture 01 We

DSMHT 305: Urban and Regional Planning: Risk Mitigation Concept

Department of Disaster Science and ManagementUniversity of Dhaka

Bangladesh

Prepared by-BAYES AHMED

20 DECEMBER 2015

Welcome to Lecture 07

Development

What is Development?

Changes in the lives of people for better conditions, such as:

1. Increase of income

2. More employment opportunities

3. Improvement in the quality of life (utility facilities and transportation)

4. Ensuring basic needs of living

Comilla Model

The Comilla Models of Rural Development are widely known in the development world.

This model evolved out of a series of experimental or pilot projects designed and conducted by the Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development (BARD) in Comilla Kotwali Thana (i.e. later became Comilla Upazila).

The models were the outcome of a search for innovation in rural development in a low-income and densely populated agrarian society, subjected under two hundred years of colonial rule.

The academy decided to introduce pilot projects within a few months of its inception in May 1959.

Comilla Model

Basic Assumptions:

1. The villagers have the best understanding of the problems of rural life and rural situation. So the problems of rural development should be approached from their point of view.

2. The villagers are capable of bringing about changes in their conditions. The villagers themselves would be in a position to initiate the process of changes.

3. Rural development is undoubtedly much wider and broader in scope and dimension than agricultural development.

Comilla Model

Basic Assumptions

4. Villagers should be approached as a unit and recognized as the starting point for the process of modernization.

5. Training, research and demonstration are essential in promoting rural development and these should be dynamically integrated into the life of the rural community.

Components of the Comilla Programme

1. Decentralization and coordinated rural administration2. Organizing the farm and non-farm population through a

new system of rural co-operatives3. Co-operative processing and marketing4. Poultry and cattle development

Comilla Model

Components of the Comilla Programme

5. Agricultural mechanization and irrigation

6. Building rural infrastructures though local level planning

7. Rural education

8. Women’s development

9. Family planning

10. Health and nutrition and so on.

Comilla Model

Four Programme Models

Out of many four of the models were adopted for nationwide replication.

1. Thana Training and Development Centre (TTDC) – establishing a training and development centre in every thana

2. Rural Works Programme (RWP) – a road-drainage embankment works programme in every thana

3. Thana Irrigation Programme (TP) – a decentralized, small-scale irrigation programme in every thana; and

4. A Two-tier rural co-operative system in every thana

Comilla Model

1. Thana Training and Development Centre (TTDC)

It was located at the higher tier to provide training to the leading officials of the Krishak Samabaya Samiti (KSS), the primary cooperatives, in advanced methods of farming.

The major objective were – decentralized and coordinated rural administration, local level planning and development of skills and human resources of the people.

2. Rural Works Programme (RWP)

It had the objective of utilizing the idle manpower in the construction of infra- structural capital. Funds for this programme were provided by the Government.

Comilla Model

2. Rural Works Programme (RWP)

It was attempt to tackle two fundamental problems: construction of a network of roads, drainage channels and embankments; and provision of employment during the dry idle months to the landless laborers.

It proposed to build the infrastructure in partnership with the local councils.

3. Thana Irrigation Programme

It aimed to tackle one of the vital constraints to agricultural development of the country. It created the irrigation facilities during the dry periods.

Comilla Model

3. Thana Irrigation Programme

A parallel irrigation programme, for which the capital cost was met by borrowing from the state, was also offered. Tubewells and low-lift pumps were made available to the individual KSS.

4. Two-tier Co-operatives

It was an attempt to organize the small farmers. They were grossly exploited by a vicious system of money lending and trade. They even cannot modernize their farming methods or use machines individually. It can replace money lending. Their ultimate aim was self-financing and self-management.

Comilla Model

4. Two-tier Co-operatives• Two-tier cooperative is a system of cooperative comprising

village-based primary cooperative societies called Krishak Samabaya Samiti (KSS) at the local level.

• Members of KSS accumulate capital through weekly savings.

• Every KSS draws up joint production of plans, creates a block of 50 to 100 acres of land in the village in order to facilitate the economic adoption of irrigation, institutional credit and improved fanning.

• The KSS receives credit from the Thana Central Cooperative Association (TCCA) to implement these plans.

Comilla Model

Salient Features

1. Promoting development and refining various institutions.2. Involvement of both public and private sectors in the

process of development.3. Development of a cadre of institutional leaders (model

farmer, women organizer, youth leader etc.) to manage their own organizations.

4. Development of three basic infrastructures – administrative, physical and organizational for comprehensive development of rural areas

5. Priority on decentralized and coordinated rural administration.

6. The model aims at comprehensive development by integrating rural development services, planning procedures, and interaction among various sub-sectors.

Comilla Model

Salient Features

7. Education organisation and discipline are the prime characteristics.8. The models place heavy emphasis on economic and technological factors for building a progressive society.9. Agriculture can improve the conditions of the farmers and provide employment.10. Involvement of both private and public sectors.

Effectiveness of the Models

1. The four programs of rural development have made significant contributions towards national development. It has also generated new ideas and methods.

Comilla Model


2. It has replaced the old colonial approach – ‘development through officers’.

3. It has solved some critical problems like low agricultural productivity, food deficit, rural unemployment etc.

4. Innovative methods – (a) the farmers can be organized for production, (b) investment can be made in rural area, (c) leadership can be developed in rural areas, (d) large scale adoption of technological innovations can take place in rural communities, (e) the rural people and government can work as partners, and (f) a bottom-up planning can be introduced.

Comilla Model


5. The models have evolved a combination of training knowledge-communications systems for human resources development.

6. It has generated a set of principles and tested methodologies which can be used in formulating any programme in rural development.

Some Points of Criticism

1. The programs do not aim at any radical change in the structure of the govt. authority or land tenure in rural areas.

Comilla Model


2. It is no where near the goal of sufficient capital accumulation for achieving financial self-reliance.

3. The programs have not brought any significant direct benefits to the landless and near landless.

4. The benefits of technology diffusion have largely gone up the large landholders.

5. Comilla cooperatives are dominated by better-off farmers, they are also the bigger defaulters.

Comilla Model


6. Over the longer period real wages to the rural areas have declined.

7. There has been breakdown in the organisation discipline and so on.

How the models can be utilized properly and relevance for contemporary Bangladesh??

Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP)

Although there were many programmes in operation, there was no machinery to coordinate these activities.

The need for Integrated Rural Development was felt in order to establish a machinery for coordination among different programmes practiced for solving rural problems.

After liberation, it was decided to undertake the Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP) as a national programme for the coordination of local level administration around the growth of Comilla pattern two-tier cooperatives throughout the country.


The following were the reasons for choosing to use the two-tier cooperative system throughout the whole country:

(1) Bangladesh being a country mainly of small-holdings, the two-tier cooperative system was expected to be one of the easiest ways of diffusing modern inputs, credit and knowledge to these small farmers without bringing any fundamental challenge to the private ownership of land;

(2) national and international support towards the Comilla approach in the early 1960s;


(3) High Yielding Varieties (HYV) seed-fertilizer-irrigation technology was thought to be scale-neutral, i.e., small farmers would benefit as much as large farmers and therefore this type of cooperative would satisfy some equity considerations too.

But ultimately this expectation was proved false because the cooperatives proved to be dominated by the rich farmers and the small fanners' role was negligible.


The IRDP was designed as a national programme with the following objectives:

• To organize "Comilla-type Cooperatives" for optimum utilization of human as well as material resources available for development.

• To organize farmers into cohesive and disciplined groups for planned development.

• To boost agricultural production in the shortest possible time through group action.

• To ensure proper utilization of institutional credit and other inputs arranged and supervised by the Thana Central Cooperative Association (TCCA).


The IRDP was designed as a national programme with the following objectives:• To help accumulate farmers' own capital through thrift

deposits and sale of shares.

• To promote adoption of suitable agricultural innovations through diffusion of new ideas and knowledge.

• To integrate all supplies or services for effective utilization of resources for productive purposes.

• To study, experiment and plan for comprehensive rural development.

• To help develop local leadership through continuous training and group action.


From these objectives it becomes clear that the main goal of IRDP is to achieve growth and to provide equitable distribution of income among the members in favour of the marginal farmers and landless labourers. The other objectives stated in the list are means to achieve these objectives. Consequently, most of the thanas (now upazilla) were taken into the IRDP.

The main features of IRDP as a national programme were:

(1) to organise farmers into village-based cooperative societies, namely, KSS;

(2) to federate the primary cooperatives into TCCA to provide a forum for coordination, training and a channel for distribution of inputs including credit;


(3) the promotion of savings and generation of capital by members;

(4) the preparation of production plans for the KSS;

(5) the provision of storage, marketing, processing of products and workshop facilities;

(6) the linkage of TCCA with other thana-level agencies;

(7) the cooperation with other national programmes like RWP, TIP, population control and family planning;

(8) the organisation of TCCA into district federations and of these into a national federation.


IRDP was initiated by Govt. in 1970 and its implementation was started in 1971.

In December 1982, the IRDP was converted into the Bangladesh Rural Development Board (BRDB).

IRDP has stated in its objectives that its goal is to achieve growth and to provide equitable distribution of income among the members in favour of the marginal farmers and landless labourers.


In order to assess the role of IRDP in providing equity, two issues need to be considered from which conclusions may be drawn, viz.

(A) Whose interest is served by the IRDP Cooperatives?

(B) What is the impact of the IRDP Cooperative structure on employment, income and welfare of disadvantaged people?


Credit and irrigation facilities are the main facilities of this cooperative society.

It has been known that the credit facilities are enjoyed by the rich farmers, again because the main criterion for providing credit is the amount of land property owned by the members.

The other conditions for credit are: (i) amount of share and deposit, (ii) income, (iii) participation in the activities of the society and (iv) clearance of the earlier loan.

The other criteria are also centred around the economic conditions of the members.


It is also found from discussion with the villagers that the powerful members of the cooperatives get the maximum irrigation facilities, e.g.,

(i) If there is scarcity of water due to scarcity of electricity, the powerful will get the water first.

(ii) The more the amount of land, the more water he is entitled to get.

(iii) The landholders can get water without paying the earlier amount they are supposed to pay.

(iv) If they are not allowed to take by law, they take water by force.


Therefore, it becomes evident that although this cooperative brought some achievements in increasing production (like most of the cooperatives in Bangladesh), it failed to bring equity.

From the foregoing (A) it becomes clear that IRDP cooperatives serve the interest of the big farmers, and from

(B) it is seen that although almost all thanas are covered by IRDP, landlessness, unemployment, poverty are increasing in the country.

So the role of IRDP to provide access (not to mention equal access) of the poor to the production system is negligible. The contribution of IRDP to equity is not very promising.


Like other countries of the developing world, where achievement of growth and equity together have been attempted through a "Capitalistic Cooperative" system without prior land distribution, it has failed in the sense that cooperatives were transformed into the cooperatives of large farmers.

In order to assure equal access of all classes in the cooperative structure, i.e., to make an environment where growth and equity become mutually supportive rather than contradictory, it is necessary to get the structure right, which means to bring fundamental change in the production relations.

In other words the property relations should be democratised.

Thank You for Listening!

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