Fisheries and Livestock Adviser Farida Akhter on Monday said some 60 percent of cancer patients in the country are farmers, attributing their high risk of the disease to prolonged exposure to pesticides.

“Some 60 percent of cancer patients are directly involved in agriculture. The reason for this is that women are mixing pesticides and farmers are spraying these (on crops),” she said while addressing a dialogue in the capital.

Bangladesh Agricultural Farm Workers Federation organised the national dialogue on “Inclusive Labour Laws with International Standard and Legal Recognition of Workers in Agriculture and Informal Economic Sectors” at CIRDAP Auditorium.

The adviser said no remedial measures are being taken in this regard, though focus should be given on prevention of cancers among farmers.

She mentioned that the term ‘farmer’ does not appear in the agricultural law; instead, the law only includes the term ‘contract farmer.’

Human rights organisations often overlook workers' rights: Farida Akhter

Farida Akhter asked for changes to the Agricultural Farm Worker Recruitment and Control Policy, 2017.  "We must work to establish the rights of workers, not to control them," she said.

The Fisheries and Livestock Adviser said most of the organisations working on human rights advocate for workers' rights. “If the rights of workers are violated, it will be human rights violations,” she said.

She said the rights of workers should be prioritised in the constitution. “Though we see the exploitation of garment workers and many other workers, we do not see the exploitation of agricultural workers," she added.

Farida Akhter said the previous government talked loudly about modernization in agriculture, but it brought harvester machines because the farmers' wages were high. “As a result, farmers are becoming unemployed. We must be careful about how dangerous it is that herbicides are being used to clean weeds,” she said.

In the event, a demand was placed to prepare a database of workers and to bring the workers under the social safety net.

Chief of the Labour Reform Commission Syed Sultan Uddin Ahmed, among others, spoke at the event presided over by Acting president of the farm worker federation Azizul Haque.