Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith said yesterday that commercial farming will not be able to flourish unless the government introduces reforms in the land management.
Speaking at a pre-budget meeting in the finance ministry auditorium, Muhith also said the government plans to increase the functions of the Department of Agricultural Extension in order to reduce production costs and introduce newer technologies and quality seeds for farmers.
The discussion meeting, “Agriculture budget, budget for the farmers,” was organised by private television channel, Channel I.
The minister also noted that after the budget for the next fiscal year is announced, he will work to introduce a “holding certification” for land owners and land-less farmers so that they can avail government financial facilities and local private sector business facilities.
He also hopes that commercial farming activities will expand further if the government succeeds in covering the whole country under the holding certificate programme.
Founding director and Head of News of Channel I Shykh Seraj told the discussion that the country needs more funds for agricultural research since only Tk500 crore endowment funds have been allocated for the cause in the current fiscal year budget.
“Agricultural diversification relies on agricultural research,” he noted.
He also said letter of credit restrictions and import restrictions need to be imposed to protect agricultural products like potato and onion.
“Farmers have urged the government to bring down prices of the agriculture inputs to their purchasing capacity and to reduce the costs of production and ensure fair selling prices,” he added.
Shykh Seraj also said: “Farmers say the total cost of farming, including prices of the agriculture inputs, have gone up.
“But, the market prices for their products have remained inconsistent with their cost of production.”
Admitting the fact, the finance minister assured that measures will be taken in this regard.
According to a survey conducted by Channel I, only 5.6% of 22,000 farmers in five regions, Bhola, Sylhet, Pabna, Bhramanbaria and Jamalpur, received government loan facilities while 78% of them received loans from different non-governmental organisations.
