Dhaka: Undertaking newer schemes for the farm-sector development, the government proposed a total budgetary allocation of Tk 7,492 crore for the agriculture sector- both development and non-development combined-- for the FY 2010-11 with a subsidy of Tk 4,000 crore.

While unveiling the coming year’s budget, Finance Minister AMA Muhith Thursday informed parliament that the allocation for the last fiscal in the sector was first made at Tk 3,600 crore and later the amount was increased to Tk 4,950 crore.

He also said under the program of supplying high-yielding variety of seeds to the farmers in FY2010-11, targets have been fixed to produce and distribute 1,18,450 MT and 84,838 MT high-yielding seeds through Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation (BADC) and the Department of Agriculture Extension respectively.

“Besides, actions are being taken to increase the capacity of seed storages from 40,000 MT to 1,00,000 MT. In 2010-11, we have adopted schemes to grow hybrid paddy in 12 lakh hectares and salinity-resistant Bri-47 in 50 percent of salinity-affected 10 lakh hectares of land,” Muhith told the House.

An allocation of Tk 300 crore has been made for expanding irrigation
facilities in the southern part of Bangladesh by utilizing surface water, mitigating water-logging problems in the southwest region and widening the area of cultivable land and facilitating multi-crop production through draining out water in Haor areas.  The allocation for the previous fiscal was Tk 427 crore.

In the next fiscal year, the government has set a target to distribute agricultural loan of Tk 12,000 crore. The last fiscal’s target was Tk. 11,512 crore.

The government is going to operationalize the already-created Agricultural
Research Fund from the next year for fair price for agricultural products and agro-insurance of paddy, he said, adding that the size of the fund now stands at Tk 412 crore.

“As the government wants to ensure that farmers get fair price for their produce, we have taken steps to organize ‘Farmers Marketing Group’ and ‘Farmers Club’ throughout the country along with developing 128 agro-markets at the Upazila level and 30 such bazaars at the district level to facilitate marketing of agricultural produce,” Muhith said.

The government has taken an initiative to introduce an ‘Agriculture Insurance’ scheme to provide the small and medium farmers with crop-price support in the event of crop failure due to natural disasters.

With a view to increasing agricultural production and developing
the agricultural sector as a whole, the government is following National Agricultural Policy, National Agricultural Extension Policy, National Seed Policy, Integrated Fertilizer Distribution Policy and Integrated Pests Management Policy.

“We are working on the formulation of the National Agricultural Policy 2010 by modifying National Agricultural Policy of 1999,” he added.

“Accordingly, in the next year’s budget, we plan to keep fertilizer prices within the reach of the farmers. Besides, we have taken a program to distribute organic, green and bio fertilizers to 97 lakh families in the country to popularize the use of natural fertilizers in kitchen farming to increase agricultural production,” the minister said.

Bdst 1850 HRS
LY/MUA