Bangladesh will give 1.46 million farmers free seed and chemical fertiliser this rabi season to expand seven crops: mustard, groundnut, soybean, mung bean, lentil, grass pea (khesari) and pigeon pea (arhar). The agriculture ministry issued the government order on 2 November.
The order, signed by Mohammad Suhel Mahmud, deputy secretary of the ministry's Inputs-2 branch, says the money comes from the agricultural rehabilitation fund. District committees will share it among upazilas, and upazila committees will pick genuine small and marginal farmers through local extension officers.
Mustard takes the largest share: Tk 6.4224 crore for 1.29 million farmers. Groundnut gets Tk 3.0132 crore for 35,000 farmers, soybean Tk 98 lakh for 30,000, mung Tk 2.37 crore for 30,000, lentil Tk 2.98 crore for 20,000, grass pea Tk 3.1725 crore for 20,000 and pigeon pea Tk 37.45 lakh for 5,000 farmers.
Each farming household may receive help for only one of the seven crops. For one bigha a farmer gets 1 kg of mustard seed, 10 kg of groundnut, 4 kg of soybean, 2 kg of mung, 3 kg of lentil, 8 kg of grass pea or 2 kg of pigeon pea.
Fertiliser goes to pools of ten farmers. For mustard and soybean each pool receives one 10 kg bag of DAP and one 10 kg bag of MoP; for groundnut, mung, lentil, grass pea and pigeon pea, two 20 kg bags of DAP and one 10 kg bag of MoP. Each pool must farm a block of ten bighas or more side by side, and areas where cultivation can expand get priority.
Distributors must record each farmer's national identity card and mobile number, enter the help on the farmer's agriculture card and take a signature or thumbprint; farmers must collect the inputs in person. Beneficiary lists are to be posted on district and upazila office websites, and advances must be settled by 30 June 2027.
The report is by the Krishi Shomoy desk.
Photo: Hopeoflight / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Source: Krishi Shomoy
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