Agro-economist has termed the allocation kept for the agriculture sector in the proposed 2015-16 FY budget usual and lacks of any long term plan for the sake of the sector.
“The agriculture sector seems to be less prioritised by the state authorities and faces poor attention in line with its other branches including fisheries and livestock,” said Dr Mahabub Hosain, former executive director of Brac, adding that there is no clear direction in the budget to improve those areas.
Dr Mahabub made the remarks to the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
Finance Minister AMA Muhith on Thursday proposed Tk12,699 crore, 4.3% of the whole budget, for the ministry of agriculture while its revised budget was Tk12,278 crore, 5.12% of the revised budget.
The decrease in the new allocation indicates the negligence of the government to the country’s agriculture sector, he continued, saying that Tk9000 crore subsidy was proposed in the upcoming budget while the figure is equal to that of last two budgets.
Dr Mahabub for lowering the subsidy volume, telling that the amount should be kept for the fisheries and livestock management as well as developing the market mechanism.
In addition, some experts said the finance minister did not hint any clear indication to improve the mechanism to ensure the fair prices for the farm productions.
In the current season, the Boro farmers have not been getting the fair prices of their production thus they are forced to incur a large loss.
On the contrary, Dr Quazi Shahabuddin, former director general of Bangladesh Institute for Development Studies (BIDS), said the subsidy reduction would have negative impacts on the production as most of the amount goes to fertilizer and irrigation.
However, Dr Mahabub said the government needs to procure more rice from the peasant to ensure fair prices for their production.