Nine unions in Bagerhat's nine upazilas have been chosen for the first phase of the farmer-card programme, one of the present government's election-manifesto promises, and 26,338 farmers there will receive cards. Prime Minister Tarique Rahman inaugurates distribution on 17 September, when the agriculture department expects the coastal upazila of Rampal to join online. Over five years, 244,328 farmers in the district are to be covered in phases.

Apurba Lal Sarkar, additional deputy director of the Department of Agricultural Extension in Bagerhat, told BSS the first-phase target is 31,374 farmers; data for 26,338 has been collected and the rest will follow on schedule. Seven-member committees led by upazila nirbahi officers selected the farmers, and by 31 August had finalised the 26,338 names and sent the lists to the banks.

The unions surveyed in the first block are Ranjitpur, Chulkathi and Khanpur in Sadar; Deyapara, Kathaltala and Singati in Fakirhat; Chunkhola, Shason and Kachna in Mollahat; Islamabad, Gilatala and Bashtali in Rampal; Badhal, Sangdia and Pingoria in Kachua; Chalitabunia and Khaulia in Morrelganj; Khontakata, Golbunia and Nalbunia in Sharankhola; Chila, Joymoni and Haldibunia in Mongla; and Chardakatia and Charbaniari in Chitalmari.

Card-holders will receive a government grant of Tk 2,500 a year through Janata, Sonali and Krishi banks; the card counts as a debit card, said agriculturist Md Motahar Hossain, the department's deputy director in Bagerhat. According to the department, card-holders also gain access to irrigation at fair rates, training, machinery, pest and disease advice, marketing facilities, crop-insurance training, subsidies and incentives, credit and inputs. In a coastal district where farmers grow rice and other crops amid salinity, waterlogging, cyclones and tidal surges, he said, the programme carries particular weight.

Based on BSS's Bagerhat report. Source: BSS