‘Big companies destroying agriculture’ 

Fisheries and Livestock Adviser Farida Akhter has said that big companies are working to destroy the country’s agriculture.

 “Contract farms are not related to farmers. We need to see how much benefit farmers are getting from it”, she said.

The adviser was speaking at a roundtable titled ‘Agricultural Workers of Bangladesh: Crisis and Solutions’ at a hotel in the capital on Tuesday (November 12). 

The roundtable was organized by Research Initiatives Bangladesh (REB) and Germany’s Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung (RLS).

The adviser called upon to ensure fair wages and social protection for agricultural workers. “The survival of workers is not just related to wages”.

She said, “Farmers are not getting fair prices for their crops, and when rice prices increase, various problems arise; in that case, food items often have to be imported.” 

“If we procure food items at good prices with subsidies, we  will no longer have to import, but we are not doing that,” she said.