The government will not give any subsidies to the farmer against the diesel price hike. The increase in the price of diesel will affect the country’s agricultural sector.
Agriculture Minister Dr Md Abdur Razzque has openly admitted this while talking with journalists at his secretariat office in the capital on Wednesday.
When asked whether the hike in diesel prices would have an impact on agriculture and how the government would help farmers in this regard, the minister said, “There will be an impact for sure, there is no way to deny it.”
The minister added, “About 40 percent of the irrigation machines are powered by electricity. But in the case of use of diesel, there will be problems. Let's see if the price trend is low, if the government reduces the price of diesel, the situation may change.”
He said, “Thus our farmers are plagued with various problems. They do not get the price of the crop during the peak season. That is why we are talking about the processing of agricultural products, commercialization or export abroad ... so that they can go to the market and get good prices, these initiatives will be taken.”
“The Prime Minister is giving utmost importance to this issue. However, we would like to assure you that the price of fertilizer which was USD 250 to USD 270, is now USD 800 to USD 900. We give Tk 900 crore subsidy annually. This time I believe the amount will rise to Tk 20,000 crore. However, the Prime Minister has so far told us that she is not in favor of increasing the prices of fertilizer,” he added.
To enhance cooperation and trade relations in the agricultural sector a trade mission from the Netherlands will come to visit Bangladesh in March 2022.
At the same time, technical assistance will be provided in the country for setting up of international standard labs, conservation of onions and potatoes, innovation of climate change tolerant crops, construction of greenhouses and glasshouses.
The Minister said, “The Netherlands would provide advanced production technology, procurement, storage technology, technical aspects of manufacturing various types of machinery, technical assistance in real-time automated reporting system and training and higher education assistance in human resource development.”
“A memorandum of understanding will be signed soon with Wageningen University and Research on these issues. In addition, if the country is in deficit, there is a possibility of Dutch investment in new onion import arrangements and agricultural processing from the Netherlands in September,” the minister added.
The Minister further said, “A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) would be signed between the Food Standards Agency of the United Kingdom and the Ministry of Agriculture for providing technical assistance for setting up of international standard laboratories, inter-laboratory testing validation, ISO 17025 Standard.”
He also said that in addition, the process of training collaboration with Greenwich University and the market connection will be created with the British superstores like- Saintsbury, Asda, Tesco through the British Bangladesh Chamber.”
Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture and Secretary (in charge) Md. Abdur Rauf, Additional Secretary Md. Ruhul Amin Talukder, Hasanuzzaman Kallol, Director General of Agriculture Marketing Department Mohammad Yusuf, Chairman and CEO of Pran RFL Group Ahsan Khan Chowdhury, Managing Director and CEO of ACI Agro Link H.F. Ansari, CEO of Square Food and Beverage Parvez Saiful Islam and others were present.
