Contract farming in Mauritania: A new door of opportunity for Bangladeshi entrepreneurs
Mauritania, one of the largest countries in West Africa, has recently welcomed the ‘contract farming’ proposal to cultivate its arable land. This is a much welcome move that is likely to create potential opportunities for Bangladeshi businessmen and entrepreneurs
During the recent visit to Mauritania, the Non-Resident Ambassador of Bangladesh Muhammad Zulkar Nayen proposed a contract farming offer for our country in a bilateral meeting, which was cordially accepted by the Minister of Agriculture of Mauritania Yahya Ahmed Al Wagf.
The minister expressed high expectations that Bangladesh and Mauritania will work intensively in the future to achieve food security for not only both countries, but also for the rest of the world.
The initiative taken by Mauritania to release the large arable land in the southern region to the private sector will open the door to many opportunities for Bangladeshis.
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There are possibilities for raising various types of livestock and cultivating crops like wheat, corn, paddy, and watermelon in this region. Bangladeshi entrepreneurs can apply the latest technologies there to produce more agricultural products and pave the way for the implementation of commercial agricultural activities, instead of just extracting the existing natural agricultural resources in Mauritania.
Agriculture is vital to livelihoods in West Africa. It is the main source of employment for the 290 million people who live in the region, employing 60% of the workforce, and accounts for 35% of the region's gross domestic product (GDP).
In an open economy, every country in the world depends on each other for mutual benefits like trade, investment, expatriate transfer, exchange of materials or inputs, adaptable technology, and attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) for their respective socio-economic development.
Bangladeshi investors or businessmen can choose the big countries with vast land resources which are unproductive, uncultivated, and where they (foreign countries) are unable to cultivate their land for lack of skilled, adequate capital, machinery, or management.
They can also invest in the foreign countries which have demand for manpower and skilled entrepreneurs. Bangladesh is a small country with limited land resources but a dense population.
Our skilled, semi-skilled, unskilled workforces have immense job opportunities in the foreign lands.
Contract farming may be agricultural, dairy or industrial. Contract farming is generally defined as "a form of agriculture or industrial activities on the land with necessary inputs from the buyer's side. The buyer takes the lead in the marketing of the products as well".
We have a growing number of entrepreneurs who are joining in agriculture or industrial business and contributing to the rise in yields of production. Their expertise and knowledge can be utilised in contract farming abroad.
China has heavily invested in Steel, Agriculture, Power, Hydro-Power and other infrastructure sectors in the South and West African countries. Our neighbouring country India has invested the same and is seeking opportunities in these fields.
Bangladesh has a huge youth workforce educated in agriculture discipline and has many agriculture-related industries and educational institutions. Our agriculture graduates who are passing out from agricultural institutions or universities are interested in taking self-employed jobs in agriculture, dairy or poultry farming, small or mini-agriculture related industries in the country or in the foreign land.
There is a huge demand and potentiality of agricultural products worldwide which can be produced and exported to other countries suited to the needs meeting local demands.
Advantages of such farming or firming in foreign countries: There is a great potentials and possibilities of skilled, semi-killed, unskilled manpower export to foreign countries and has potentialities to produce more agro-based products (like cereal crops, fruits, vegetables, dairy and poultry) in foreign land.
Agriculture or industrial entrepreneurs can earn more income by gaining worldwide experience and knowledge. It will also help to reduce unemployment problems as well, and will earn foreign income and contribute to our GDP growth.
We have a lot of manpower which are literally unemployed or under-employed in the agriculture sector, and there are not enough lands in our country to utilise their full potential. It is an opportunity to let unemployed educated people be light and to give them possible employment opportunities in these fields.
It will help to reach our Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) too. We all publicly or privately should encourage contract farming or business in the potential and possible sectors in the foreign land.
The countries may be South-West Africa, South-East Africa, North America, Canada, Australia and in other potential countries which have abundant productive land but unutilised.
A high level committee from the foreign and planning ministries can formulate a pragmatic policy in this regard.
Md Muzibur Rahman writes on different issues and can be reached at [email protected]
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of The Business Standard.
