The document discusses the Comilla Model of rural development in Bangladesh. It originated from pilot projects conducted by the Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development to address issues in rural societies. Key components of the model included decentralization, organizing farmers through cooperatives, infrastructure development, and integrating various development services. Though impactful initially, criticisms emerged such as benefits accruing mainly to large landholders and decline in real wages over time. The Integrated Rural Development Programme later aimed to coordinate rural programs nationwide using the two-tier cooperative system of the Comilla Model.

1. Welcome to Lecture 01
to Lecture 01We
DSMHT 305: Urban and Regional Planning:
Risk Mitigation Concept
Department of Disaster Science and Management
University of Dhaka
Bangladesh
Prepared by-
BAYES AHMED
20 DECEMBER 2015
Welcome to Lecture 07

2. 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

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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 administration
2. Organizing the farm and non-farm population through a
new system of rural co-operatives
3. Co-operative processing and marketing
4. Poultry and cattle development

6. 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.

7. 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

8. 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.

9. 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.

10. 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.

11. 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.

12. 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.

13. 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.

14. Comilla Model
Effectiveness of the Models
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.

15. Comilla Model
Effectiveness of the Models
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.

16. Comilla Model
Some Points of Criticism
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.

17. Comilla Model
Some Points of Criticism
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??

18. 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.

19. Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP)
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;

20. Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP)
(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.

21. Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP)
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).

22. Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP)
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.

23. Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP)
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;

24. Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP)
(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.

25. Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP)
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.

26. Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP)
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?

27. Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP)
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.

28. Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP)
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.

29. Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP)
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.

30. Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP)
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.

31. Thank You for Listening!
Any Question?
Contact Email:
bayesahmedgis@gmail.com