Agriculture Minister Dr. Abdur Razzaque on Tuesday said the government took various initiatives to improve the living standard of farmers.
“The government has emphasised three issues – cutting production cost by modernising agriculture sector, increasing production and maintaining the export markets – to this end,” the minister said at a meeting in the city.
The meeting was organised by the agriculture ministry at Bangladesh Agriculture Research Council (BARC). Food Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder, secretaries and rice millers were present there, reports UNB.
Razzaque said his ministry is considering giving 20 per cent cash incentive to encourage rice export. “The government has decided to export 1.0-1.5 million tonnes of rice this year,” he said, noting that around 41.3 million metric tonnes of paddy, wheat and maize were produced.
“We’ve to maintain rice export market as part of efforts to minimise the farmers’ losses. We’ll discuss with the Finance Minister in this regard soon,” he added.
He said the government’s image has been tarnished as the farmers did not get fair prices of paddy.
“Several farmers set fire to their paddy field this year. We don’t know what the situation will be in the coming years. So, we’ve to take proper initiatives to ensure that they get fair prices,” he said.
“We’ll purchase more paddies from farmers in the next year,” the minister said.
He said the government will assist in procuring modern agriculture equipment to minimise labour cost.
Food Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder said they do not have enough warehouses to stock paddy.
“The Agriculture Ministry has to provide accurate information on the annual production and make a proper list of farmers,” he said.
