The government aims to bring about 2.4 crore (24 million) farmers into its programme of farmer registration, farm input support and the phased issue of farmer cards over the next four years. Work is under way to cover 43 lakh farmers in the current 2026-27 fiscal year, BSS reports.
The programme is organised around 14,180 agricultural blocks in 503 upazilas of all 64 districts. It has so far advanced in 1,681 blocks, where data on 19.25 lakh farmers has been collected and 9 lakh bank accounts linked to the farmer card have been opened.
Its purpose is to build a single database of farmers and to deliver financial and input support to them directly. Landless, marginal and small farmers are given priority in the first phase.
In a pre-pilot from March to June this year, cards were handed to 20,832 farmers in 11 agricultural blocks in 11 upazilas of 10 districts across all eight divisions. It was launched on 14 April, Pahela Baishakh, in Tangail Sadar upazila.
Under the pre-pilot, 20,480 landless, marginal and small farmers received Tk 2,500 each a year, Tk 5.12 crore in all. Building on that, the programme was launched simultaneously in 77 upazilas of 56 districts on 1 October.
For a farmer, registration opens the way to incentives and input support paid through a bank account. Under the plan every district, upazila and agricultural block will be brought in step by step, with card distribution widened once data collection and account opening are done.
Photo: A Bangladeshi farmer harvesting paddy, Balaram Mahalder / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Source: BSS
Comments
(0)