Chittagong Hill Tracts Affairs Minister Saching Prue has asked the Ministry of Agriculture to help build a modern, farm-based economy in the hills while protecting their environment, Krishi Shomoy reports. He made the request during a courtesy call on Agriculture Minister Mohammad Amin Ur Rashid at the minister's office in the Secretariat at noon on Sunday, 20 September.

The meeting covered the overall development of crop agriculture, fisheries and livestock in the Hill Tracts and across the country, and the areas in which the two ministries can cooperate.

Setting out the region's potential, Saching Prue said the main goal is to stop entirely the cultivation of harmful tobacco and narcotic plants in the remote parts of the hills. Hill farmers need special training so that they become as skilled in modern agricultural technology as farmers on the plains, he said.

Describing the present as the right moment to raise output substantially in the age of artificial intelligence, the minister said the Hill Tracts could play a decisive part in the national economy by expanding coffee, cashew, turmeric, sugarcane and bamboo to meet the country's demand for safe food and nutrition.

Agriculture Minister Mohammad Amin Ur Rashid welcomed the initiative and said the two ministries would work jointly to change the fortunes of farmers on both hill and plain land and to achieve overall economic growth.

Saching Prue, a prince of the Bohmong Circle of Bandarban, was received by the agriculture minister on arrival at the ministry, the report said. How the discussion translates into extension programmes for cashew, coffee and spice crops on the hill land of Bandarban, Rangamati and Khagrachhari remains to be seen.

Reporting: Krishi Shomoy desk.

Source: Krishi Shomoy