The cabinet has approved the draft "National Agricultural Extension Policy 2020" to ensure climate-resilient, environment-friendly, safe, sustainable, nutritious and profitable crop production by providing technology and information services based on the needs of farmers and entrepreneurs.

The approval came at the weekly cabinet meeting on Monday (2 March), chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at her office.

After the meeting, Cabinet Secretary Khandaker Anwarul Islam told journalists at the Secretariat: "The main aim of this policy is to ensure climate-resilient, environment-friendly, safe, sustainable, nutritious and profitable crop production by providing technology and information services based on the needs of all classes of farmers and entrepreneurs."

The policy has been drawn up so that research topics are chosen according to demand, through exchanges among farmers, agricultural entrepreneurs and stakeholders in agricultural education, research, marketing and extension, and so that research results are extended to the field.

The secretary said that if the policy is implemented through effective coordination and cooperation among everyone involved in agriculture, extension services can be delivered according to farmers' needs and agricultural development can be speeded up further.

Anwarul Islam said the country's first agriculture policy was adopted in 1996.

He said the cabinet has advised adding a clause on cooperative farming and marketing to the new policy to get the most out of crop production. Giving an example, he said that if the same crop is sown, harvested and marketed jointly on 100 acres owned by many people, profits will more than double. A pilot project on this was discussed in the cabinet, he said.

The cabinet also gave final approval to the draft "Sunamganj Science and Technology University Bill 2020", the cabinet secretary said, adding that the bill is similar to those of the country's other science and technology universities.

With Sunamganj Science and Technology University, the number of science and technology universities in the country will rise to 20, and the total number of public universities, excluding medical universities, to 43.

Source: Dhaka Tribune. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.