Subsidy in agriculture should be increased: Minister

Staff Correspondent: Agriculture Minister Dr M Abdur Razzaque has expressed his opinion for increasing subsidy to ensure fair price of agricultural products.

“More subsidy should be increased in agriculture as there is crisis for agriculture workers at present. And the cost spent for workers is more in production. As a result, there is no alternative to use of tools. For this, more subsidy is needed to expand modern tools in agricultural sector,” he said while inaugurating the Annual Research Review Workshop 2017-18 of Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) in Gazipur on Saturday.

Razzaque called for increasing safe food production by taking the newly developed rice varieties and associated technologies to the doorsteps of the farmers.

“We would like to take the new rice varieties and technologies to the farmers’ doorsteps along with increased subsidies for ensuring safe food production,” he said.

The minister asked the BRRI scientists to develop more rice varieties and appropriate technologies that can withstand adverse environmental effects such as salinity, drought, cold, flood and water resurge.

Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture M Nasiruzzaman presided over the inaugural session while Chairman of the Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation M Fazle Wahed Kondker, Executive Chairman of the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council Dr M Kabir Ikramul Haque and Director General of the Department of Agricultural Extension Mir Nurul Alam joined the programme.

BRRI Director (Research) Dr Tamal Lata Aditya presented a key-note paper in the workshop.

Experts and officials from different government and non-government organizations, including BRRI, BARI, BARC, DAE and IRRI, along with universities and farmers’ representatives attended the workshop.


risingbd/Dhaka/Feb 2, 2019/Shaon/AI