Atypical skinny, bearded farmer was examining his paddy field, which was attacked by a disease unknown to him and his co-farmers. Anxiety and uncertainty shadowed his face as the leaves of his hybrid paddy plants were withering fast (Prothom Alo, April 4, 2008). Some 32,000 hectares of paddy land (according to official figures -- actually the figure is much higher), mostly with hybrid rice, had been attacked by the disease just prior to the flowering stage of the plants. The farmers don't know how to solve the problem. Some experts and agriculture officials were prescribing some solutions, but those were somewhat sketchy and unrealistic. Their reassuring words -- "there is nothing to be worried about" -- could hardly calm the farmers as they knew that if they did not find any immediate remedy of the disease, it was unlikely that the diseased field would produce any grain. Crop loss means affected farmers would be brought to their knees. The investment, which was exceptionally high for hybrid crops, and the crop loss would be disastrous as it would be difficult for a farmer to feed his family for the next six months. In contrast to the above scene, the face of a farmer of Netrokona haor area wore a smile as he was harvesting indigenous boro. He is happy having his crop readied for harvesting without much input (Dainik Jugantor, April 2, 008). He was also happy with the yield as he was expecting 15-16 maunds of paddy per bigha. Prothom Alo also carried, on April 7, a news item of harvesting of HYV boro in Khulna. Actually, the inevitable has happened. Imported hybrid technology can't be sustainable in Bangladesh. There are lots of problems associated with hybrid seeds. The profit-mongering private companies, with public sector patronisation, are cleverly concealing the ultimate disastrous future of Bangladesh's subsistence agriculture. They want to commercialise agriculture through introducing modernisation or machanisation; ousting the small farmers from their holdings. The introduction of hybrid seeds and GMOs is the beginning of the process to dispossess the small and marginal farmers of their lands. We (who advocate eco-agriculture) have long been issuing warnings against mindless spreading of hybrid seeds and GMOs. But, despite the warning, hybrid seeds are fast covering Bangladesh's land. This is going on unabated, as our farmers are not aware of the long-standing adverse effects of the non-renewable seeds. On the other hand, none of the countries in Europe has yet allowed hybrid seeds and GMO food. The crux of the current global rice crisis is also unsustainable agriculture. Vietnam, the world's second largest rice exporter, suffered huge production loss for three consecutive seasons due to pest attacks. Rice monoculture in Vietnam has pushed its farming into jeopardy. The insects associated with paddy became virulent. No pesticide could eradicate or contain them. The impact of pest attack was so widespread that Vietnam is now worried about feeding its own people. A similar situation is prevailing in Cambodia, also a major rice exporting country. On the other hand, India's granary, Punjab, nowadays produces less quantity of rice as vast tracts of land went out of rice cultivation due to developing salinity. The Philippines leased out a million hectares of land to a Chinese company to grow hybrid crops. It is true that global rice production was a bit less last year. But the extent of shortage is not so high that the global population will have to starve for non-availability of food grains. Previously, rice production was much higher than the demand, and, at times, huge quantities of rice were destroyed. Actually, multinational companies (MNCs) across the globe control production of a sizeable quantity of food grains. They produce agricultural commodities in their own farms and also through contractual farms. These companies are big enough to create an upheaval in world food grains market. And that has happened in the recent times. The price of rice has doubled in the last two months in the international market, but there is no dearth of rice anywhere if you want to buy it at higher price. A well-organised syndicate, patronised by big MNCs and publicised by some big media houses, created the panic of shortage in South Asia, where people take rice as a staple. The rice price has been artificially increased. The ultimate aim of the MNCs is to push forward hybrid seeds and GMOs in South Asia in a big way, citing the exigency of building food security. But we have already seen that hybrid seeds are unsustainable and unpredictable. They will not guarantee our food security. Rather, they may break the backbone of our farmers and the country's economy, because our small and marginal farmers would not be able recover from a total crop loss, which is a common phenomenon in the case of hybrid crops. We should not forget that, a few years back, hybrid seeds produced sterile paddy stalks in Bogra and some other districts. I believe that there is no crisis of rice in the country. During 1974 famine, I still remember that food grains were sometimes not available in our local bazar, at a remote village of Bogra, in exchange for money. I saw that many small rice traders returned empty-handed from district town or trading centres. The 1974 famine mainly hit the northern districts, where repeated flooding damaged the aman crops. However, there were other reasons of non-availability of food grains among the poor at that time. No such situation has arisen in the country till now. The main problem is that the prices of most of the essentials have gone beyond the purchasing capacity of poor and fixed income people. Abundance of items is meaningless to a person if she/he does not have the required money to buy those. And there is little possibility of a decrease in the prices of rice and other essentials to what they were even three months back. So, the only way out of the current situation is to increase the purchasing capacity of the people through creating more jobs and increasing wages in some cases. Another problem is that the government godowns are empty, as food grains were not procured during the last boro and aman seasons because the government-fixed price was too low. However, while visiting my village during the last aman harvesting season, I saw that local rice traders were stockpiling paddy for future profit. One of my acquaintances purchased some 2,000 maunds of paddy. Now, how do we solve the food problem? We don't have any option other than increasing our domestic production. We mustn't go ahead for immediate benefit by destroying sustainability. Some people are asking the poor to eat potatoes. I don't see anything wrong with the suggestion. But who is the advice for? Poor people eat anything they get when they are hungry. The suggestion should be aimed at those who can afford not only costly rice but also other costly things. It requires 8 kgs of food grains in order to grow a chicken to weigh 1 kg. Now imagine how much food grains a year the booming poultry industry eats up. So, policy-makers will have to determine whether they will encourage cultivation of food grains or flowers or strawberries. They will have to determine whether our agriculture policy will patronise the small and marginal farmers or the MNCs. We have to determine whether we will feed the chickens or the poor with the food grains. We need a comprehensive homegrown, pro-people agricultural policy. When and how we get it is the big question. Nazrul Islam is a freelance contributor to The Daily Star.