Jute Sector Research Articles

State-Owned Jute Mills in Bangladesh: Problems and Possible Way-Out

Historically, jute is known as the golden fibre of Bangladesh, a leading cash crop and major export item for Bangladesh. Unfortunately, the production and export of jute have been declining since the 1970s due to the various internal and external problems. The Bangladesh government has recently declared to shut down the production at all state-owned jute mills. This paper aims to determine the reasons behind the state-owned jute mills failure and feasible solutions to unravel the problems. An in-depth interview with 10 (ten) industry experts was conducted to collect primary data. Secondary information has been collected from different books, websites, articles and newspapers. The demand for various and versatile jute products has been increasing globally over the last two decades. Still, in Bangladesh, the jute sector's development is no longer satisfactory to retain its glorious position towards the world because of having some major problems such as mismanagement and corruption of BJMC, lack of modern machinery, lack of skilled workers, weak marketing and government policies etc. Most state-owned jute mills under BJMC are stuck in dishonesty and lavishness alongside ageing infrastructure. They have been incurring losses for years, turning profits in just four of the last 48 years. Reform and restructuring of BJMC, modernizing factory with the latest technology, providing enough training to employees, investment in research work, improvement in the production process, efficient marketing strategy and appropriate government policies might help the state-owned jute mills to regain its position in the national and international market. There are no reasons to shut down the production where reformation is adequate to make the state-owned jute mills profitable. At least, the time to shut down state-owned jute mills is not right due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

Jute Fibre: A Suitable Alternative to Wood Fibre for Paper and Pulp Production

Cellulose is the most common of all naturally occurring organic compounds belonging to the carbohydrate group. It makes up at least one-third of all the vegetable matters in the world. Virgin soft and hardwoods used as the main source of cellulose for raw materials of paper production. These can be replaced by jute plant to a great extend as it is considered as one of the most promising alternatives. Pulp and paper production on a huge amount from jute can increase jute usage and thus a vast quantity of jute will be consumed by a single product which will eventually help revitalize the jute sector of Bangladesh. So the study was conducted to use jute, an alternative to non-wood fibre to get the paper pulp and pulp products like cellulose derivatives through an easily adaptable process. The experimental processes are outlined. The physicomechanical properties of handmade papers are estimated by standard procedure. The maximum whiteness of the paper sheet is 76.70%, which is almost similar to offset paper. The basic weight of papers was estimated that ranges from 180 to 340 gsm. The study indicates that these hand-made papers can be used for making eco-friendly paper bags, packaging material which will be a suitable alternative to non-biodegradable plastic, a cause of ecological and environmental pollution.

Jute and Jute Products of Bangladesh: Contributions and Challenges

Jute is one of Bangladesh 's main cash crops. The contribution of the jute sector to the economy of Bangladesh is enormous. In Bangladesh, Jute is a vital sector from economical, agricultural, industrial, and commercial perspectives. Different kinds of jute products are made in Bangladesh and the products are environmentally friendly as well. Every year Bangladesh earns an amount of foreign currency by exporting jute and jute products in different countries all over the world. That contributes to the national income of Bangladesh. Jute was once called Bangladesh's 'Golden Fibre. But this industry's present and future prosperity and growth are vulnerable. There exist many problems in the jute industry of Bangladesh, such as; lack of scientific knowledge and modern tools, market tools, unavailability of quality seeds, low productivity, inappropriate market forecasting, land fragmentation, natural calamities, conflicts and economic crisis in the world market, etc. Based on the existing problems, I will try to give some policies that may help to eradicate the problems and improve the present conditions of the jute industry in Bangladesh.

Respiratory and other illnesses among the jute-mill workers in an industrial unit of Bangladesh

Background and aims: Bangladesh produces 33% of the world’s jute and about 40 million people in Bangladesh are directly or indirectly involved in the jute sector. The jute (organic) dust inhalation causes byssinosis and other respiratory illnesses. However, no study has yet addressed the health status of the jute handlers/workers in Bangladesh. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of respiratory illnesses among the Jute Mill Workers (JMWs). Additionally, this study tried to find out the overall health status of the JMWs which included presence of non-communicable diseases (NCD) and its related risk, which are usually ignored.
 Study design: A cross-sectional study conducted in a purposively selected jute mill - 40km off from Dhaka City. Of the 5500 workers, a list of 600 workers was provided by the mill authority for enrollment in the study. The investigations included – a) interviewing on socio-demography and clinical history; b) anthropometry (height, weight, waist- and hip-circumference); c) blood pressure measurement; d) estimation of fasting blood glucose and lipids; e) peak flow meter test; f) spirometry; g) high resolution computerized tomography (HRCT) and electrocardiography.
 Results: Of the enlisted 600 jute mill workers, 514 (men / women = 478 / 36) took part in the study. The response rate was 85%. For overall estimate of bio-physical characteristics (n = 514), the means (95% confidence interval) of age, body mass index (BMI), waist-hip ratio (WHR), systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) were 44.19 (43.34 – 45.04) years, 24.44 (24.16 – 24.73), 0.90 (0.90 – 0.91), 118.9 (117.4 – 120.4), 79.69 (78.81 – 8/0.54), respectively. Regarding social class and education, 84.4% were from non-affluent (poor) class and 50% were illiterate. About 88% of the JMWs had been working for ≥42 hours a week and 91.6% were exposed to moderate or heavy work (equivalent to ≥60 min walk). The prevalence of breathlessness, tightness of chest and chronic cough were 16.5%, 25.7% and 16.3%, respectively. The restrictive and obstructive pulmonary functions were detected in 7.0% and 0.8% of study population respectively. The prevalence of systolic hypertension was 16.5%, diastolic hypertension was 7.2% and diabetes (IFG+DM) was 13.3%. They had increased cardiovascular risks – hypertriglyceridemia (23.9%) and hypercholesterolemia (24.3%).
 Conclusions: JMWs have been suffering mostly from respiratory illnesses and a substantial number of them suffer from undiagnosed hypertension, diabetes and other non-communicable diseases. Dyslipidemia was also prevalent as a potential risk factor. The study could not assess ocular, auditory, musculoskeletal and mental health and it suggests that a well designed study should address these health related problems of JMWs.
 IMC J Med Sci 2019; 13(1): 007

Isolation and Characterization of Locally Isolated Jute Fungi and Determination of their Pathogenicity

Currently Jute farmer faces a number of problems in jute sector such as higher labor cost, fungal diseases, low market price, natural disasters etc. As a result the production of jute is far below than the desired figure. The severe yield lost of jute depends on a number of factors of which fungal diseases play a dominant role. In the present investigation 56 samples of infected jute plants were collected from 8 (Eight) different area of Bangladesh and the samples were investigated by Agar plate and Blotter methods. Symptoms of diseases were recorded and associated fungal pathogens were purified and characterized. Based on cultural and morphological characterizations three fungal pathogens were identified as Botryodiplodia theobromae Pat. (Griffon & Maubl.), Colletotrichum corchori (Ikata and Yoshida) and Macrophomina phaseolina (Tassi) Goid and allthe isolates showed their pathogenicity on jute plants.
 Bangladesh J Microbiol, Volume 35 Number 1 June 2018, pp 67-73

Exploring the Future Potential of Jute in Bangladesh

The study assesses the future potential of the jute sector in Bangladesh by examining its growth performance, international competitiveness, profitability, and production efficiency using national time-series data of over the period 1973–2013 and farm survey data from 289 farmers from two major jute growing areas of Bangladesh. Results revealed that the jute sector has experienced substantial growth in area, production, productivity, prices, and exports. However, productivity has stagnated during the latter 10-year period (2004–2013), while it grew at a rate of 1.3% per annum (p.a.) during the first 31-year period (1973–2003). Only traditional jute production is globally competitive, although financial profitability of white jute is relatively higher (benefit cost ratio = 1.24 and 1.17, respectively). Land, labor, and irrigation are the main productivity drivers for jute. The mean production efficiency of jute is estimated at 75% indicating substantial scope to improve yield by eliminating inefficiency. Marginal farmers are relatively inefficient. Policy implications include investments in research and development, irrigation, and tenurial reform and export protection for white jute in order to revive the sector and boost export earnings.

‘We don’t see who exactly run the state, do we?’: the state’s role in governance: insights from the jute sector of Bangladesh

This paper explores perceptual differences and alignments regarding governance mechanisms of the State-Owned Jute Mills (SOJMs), among the members of the Jute Commission of Bangladesh, formed by the elected democratic government in 2009 in the formulation of Jute Policy for the overall sector. The dominance of the civil society organisations in the formation of the Commission was upfront when being considered as the outcome of the movements by the jute community of the SOJMs located in Khalishpur. However, the Commission’s report and the Jute Policy 2012 recommend a policy of privatisation of the public sector mills, and there is an exclusion of the workers’ community from the proposed National Level Committee for the overall supervision of the Sector. Considering the historical and cultural conditions of Bangladesh as a postcolonial State and drawing upon an analysis of the gathered narratives, this paper identifies the role of the State in defining the governing techniques; and the dynamics of governance as a functioning of the State, and affected communities. Hence, the paper posits that in the context of neoliberalism, the role of a postcolonial State is either continually evolving on the basis of peoples’ claim on the State or is being aligned with the neoliberal agenda. The fluidity of the governing mechanisms of the postcolonial States argued in the domain of the critical management studies, while drawing from the paper such fluidity appears benefitting for the affected community. Thus, this article contributes to on-going arguments regarding the State’s role in defining governance as a response to the community in the domain of critical management studies in the context of the postcolonial States.

A REVIEW ON JUTE GEOTEXTILE – PART 1

Geotextiles have proven to be the most versatile and cost effective ground modification materials. Their use has extended rapidly into nearly all areas of civil, geotechnical, environmental, coastal and hydraulic engineering. They form the major component of the field of Geosynthetics, the others being geogrids, geomembranes and geocomposites. One of the growing alternatives in today’s context, with respect to growing environmental concern and carbon foot print generation, is the emergence of technical textiles made out of natural fibres which includes geotextile products for geotechnical applications, agrotextile products as well as other such relevant areas. Jute geotextile (JGT) can certainly be considered as a potential aspirant replacing majority of today’s popular synthetic products which are posing severe threats to our environment thereby adversely affecting the eco-congruity. For sustainable socioeconomic development, applications and usable area of jute geotextile are in increasing trend. There is a wide scope for innovative and prospective use of jute geotextile followed by the design and engineering of the products, oriented as per the end-user requirements for different geotechnical applications. This will open up newer avenues for Jute, not only as a technical textile, but for the entire Jute Sector as it is environment friendly and its application is effective for protecting environmental degradation. Therefore, keeping in mind about the potential candidature of jute geotextile this paper has substantiated a detailed review on jute geotextile-its designing and manufacturing along with its characteristic features, end-use specific applications, advantages and eventually its techno-economic viability.