The government has taken agriculture rehabilitation and incentive programmes during the upcoming ‘Robi season’ for 3,22,710 flood affected small and marginal farmers across the country.
Under these programmes, the government has earmarked nearly Taka 32.50 crore of which Taka 20.75 crore would be spent for agriculture rehabilitation and the rest of Taka 11.74crore for incentive programme to compensate crop loss for the poor and marginal farmers affected by floods caused by incessant rainfall.
Agriculture Minister Begum Matia Chowdhury formally announced these programmes while addressing a press briefing at her ministry’s conference room here on Thursday.
Under the Rehabilitation programme, each of 2,12,000 farmers will get necessary wheat, maize, mustard and potato seeds and required fertilizers with free of cost for cultivating at least one bigha of land ahead of the winter or Robi season beginning from the middle of October, said the minister.
“Each farmers will get 20 kg wheat seeds, 2kg Maize seeds and one kg Mustard seeds for cultivating a bigha of land, she said, adding that 80 kg Potato seed also to be distributed to a farmer for cultivating only 10 decimal of land under the programme.”
Even 20 kgs Di-Ammonium Phosphate (DAP) 10 kgs Muriate of Potash (MoP) will be distributed to each farmers for cultivating wheat, maize and mustard. The agriculture rehabilitation programme will be implemented at twelve flood-affected districts including Bogra, Rangpur, Gaibandha,
Kurigram, Sirajganj, Jamalpur, Sherpur, Pabna, Naogaon, Natore, Chittagong and Noakhali.
Meanwhile, more than one lakh poor and marginal farmers under twenty-three north-south-western districts have been brought under agriculture incentive programme.
Under the programme, each farmers will get necessary seed and agricultural inputs with free of cost for cultivating wheat, maize, Khesari, Felon and summer-variety Mung-bean on more than one lakh bighas of land.
“The incentive programme is being implemented for encouraging the farmers with cultivating new crops and to increase per unit production of the crops”, the agriculture minister added.
The Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) estimates that 36 percent of 1.19 lakh hectares of aman seedbeds in 30 districts in the southeast and southwest regions have been submerged by rainwater and flash floods.
Additional secretaries Nasir Uddin, Mosharraf Hossain, Mohammad Nazmul Islam, Anwar Faruque and Director-General of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) Md Hamidur Rahman, among others, were present.
