The Government of Bangladesh is giving an incentive of BDT 137 crore in the form of fertilizers and seeds to 1.67 million farmers. This will be done to stimulate the growth of maize, mustard, sunflowers, wheat, pulses, groundnuts, soybean, and onions for winter. According to Md Kamrul Islam Buyan, senior information officer for the agricultural ministry of Bangladesh, each farmer will get support for farming on one bigha of land.
For instance, 2 kgs of hybrid maize seeds will be given to maize cultivators, and 20 kgs of wheat seeds will be provided to wheat farmers for each bigha of land. In addition, mustard and sunflower growers will receive 1 kg of seeds for their land, while farm families will get an incentive to grow one crop from the aforementioned list. All of these incentives will be given by the Department of Agricultural Extension based on the farmer’s input card.
The primary factor that led to this issue can be attributed to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, because of which the supply of food products decreased and prices increased. Important crops like wheat, corn, oil seeds, etc. faced severe supply shortages worldwide while fertilizer prices skyrocketed. As Ukraine is one of the largest exporters of wheat, corn, and sunflower oil, the invasion caused a massive disruption in the global supply of these products. Even countries like the US and UK are experiencing inflations due to food scarcity. In response, the Bangladesh Government is taking active steps to off-set the shortage by incentivizing the production of home grown food products.
Leave a Comment