Staff Reporter :
With a view to reducing the production costs, the government is contemplating to consider giving subsidies to farmers for diesel like fertilizer.
If there is no rain, Boro’s production costs will go up due to high price of diesel.
Agriculture Minister Muhammad Abdur Razzaque said this while speaking as the chief guest at a workshop on “Sustaining Groundwater Irrigation for Food Security in the Northwest Region of Bangladesh” held at the city’s BRAC Centre on Thursday.
Institute of Water Modelling in collaboration with Bangladesh Agricultural University and Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation of Australia jointly organised the workshop, financed by the Australian government.
“If the fuel price is not reduced due to the Russia-Ukraine war, we would have to do something with the diesel to reduce production costs of farmers-like fertiliser. The price of diesel is very high. The government is seriously considering to give subsidy to farmers, ” the Agriculture Minister said.
“Earlier, we used to give TK 8,000 to 10,000 crore as subsidies. Even in the last year, the government gave a subsidy of TK 28,000 crore to farmers, Dr Razzaque said.
About food security he said, “We do not want to depend on anyone for food. We will be self-reliant. There will be no shortage of food in the country. The government has been working to ensure that.”
Nadria Simpson, Deputy High Commissioner of Australia High Commission in Bangladesh gave a welcome speech at the event, where CSIRO expert Mohammad Mainuddin presented a summary of the research. IWM Executive Director Abu Saleh Khan presided over the programme.
Emeritus Professor Dr Md Abdus Sattar Mandal; Dr Debashish Sarkar, Director General of Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute; and Abdul Rashid, Executive Director of Barendra Bohumukhi Unnayan project also spoke at the event among others.
