The government has preferred keeping the farm subsidy amount lower in FY25 compared to the current fiscal’s revised subsidy for agriculture.
The finance minister on Thursday proposed a subsidy allocation of Tk. 17,261 crore for agriculture, which appears substantially low compared to the outgoing fiscal’s (FY24) revised farm subsidy allocation of Tk25,644 crore.
Initially, a Tk17,533 crore subsidy was proposed for the farm sector in FY24 but eventually that amount was increased to Tk25,644 crore.
Owing to global supply chain disruptions, rise in fertilizer prices in the international market as fallout of conflicts in Ukraine, rising freight charges and taka devaluation, the government had to increase farm subsidies substantially.
However, officials concerned said the government might have considered lowering the subsidy amount in the expectation of fertilizer prices stabilizing gradually in the international market this year.
During his budget speech, the finance minister said: “We are providing subsidies to encourage agricultural production, which will remain in place in the near future. In addition to providing subsidies for fertilizers, mechanization is being promoted to increase agricultural production.”
He said over the past 13 years as many as 133,000 farm machineries have been supplied to farmers in Bangladesh and the process of supplying 51,300 more agricultural machineries to haor and coastal areas is underway.
The net proposed budget for agriculture in FY25 remains on par in the current fiscal’s budget at over Tk30,000 crore.
The finance minister said: “Production of crops, including rice, maize, potatoes, vegetables and fruits is on the increase as a result of the agri-oriented policies of the government. In FY09, the total production of food grains was 32.89 million tons. By FY23, this increased by approximately 42% to 46.703 million tons.”
He went on to say: “Ensuring food security for all is one of the foremost pledges of our government. To meet this pledge, we will continue to pursue sustainable development strategies based on the outline provided in the Perspective Plan for the advancement of agriculture and the rural economy.”
In the 8th Five-Year Plan, a target has been set to increase the government's food grain storage capacity to 3.7 million tons by 2025.
With a view to preventing food wastage and ensuring food security, the storage capacity of food godowns has been increased to 2.1 million tons, with plans to further increase it to 2.9 million tons in the next fiscal year.
To address the ongoing global economic crisis, the Bangladesh Food Safety Authority is primarily focusing on ensuring food security through intensive monitoring of the food supply chain, quality control of food, and promoting good nutrition practices, the minister added.
For the purpose of alleviating poverty and protecting low-income people from the pressure of inflation, food-friendly programs are providing 5 million low-income families with 30kg of rice per month during the five months of the off-season each year. Additionally, to stabilize the market prices of essential goods, nearly 10 million low-income families across Bangladesh are being supplied with some essential commodities.
