Since the beginning, every living thing's first need has been survival, and food lies at the root of human struggles. The people of Bengal felt the urgency of independence when their food was taken by others. After 200 years of British rule and 24 years of Pakistani exploitation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, from a farming family, led 70 million people.

Many heroes of the liberation war were farmers or farmers' sons. Over a decade, Seraj spoke with freedom-fighter farmers across the country and found their dreams repeatedly dashed; some who had property in 1971 are now landless. The state stresses food production for security but not farmers' welfare, and poor planning and political conflict hit farmers hardest.

He recalls South Korean farmer leader Lee, named the world's best farmer by the FAO in 1989, who took his own life at the World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting in Cancún on 10 September 2003 in protest at farmers' deprivation. In Vietnam, the Doi Moi land reform from 1988 gave farmers land ownership, and the food-deficit country became the world's second-largest food exporter.

Scientists such as Dr Norman Borlaug and Dr M S Swaminathan freed the world from food worries in the 1960s. Swaminathan, son of doctors, turned to agriculture after the 1943-44 Bengal famine. Seraj visited Mao Zedong's birthplace in Hunan in 2006, and notes that Yuan Longping, father of hybrid rice, was born into a poor farming family in 1931.

In Bangladesh, scientists and extension workers such as the late Professor Hasanuzzaman and Dr Qazi M Badruddoza worked for food security. In 1971, 70 million people had about 10 million tonnes of grain and imported 2 million; today over 160 million people have about 32.5 million tonnes. Seraj also recalls Nelson Mandela, whose belief that no hungry person is free was cited by FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva. Belittling agriculture, he writes, dishonours the martyrs of 1971.

Source: Shykh Seraj. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.