Cash incentives for farmers demanded in pre-budget seminar

Speakers at a seminar here urged the government to provide farmers with cash incentives as their margins remain low due to high production costs in the agriculture sector.
"The grand alliance government introduced cash subsidy for farmers in the 2009-10 fiscal despite strong opposition from the World Bank. We observed that most of the country's farmers got cash incentive at the time. So, we request the government to reintroduce cash subsidy," said former Deputy Governor of Bangladesh Bank Khandaker Dr Ibrahim Khaled at the seminar.
Krishibid Institution Bangladesh (KIB) arranged the seminar titled "the Upcoming Budget and the Agriculture Sector" at KIB auditorium in the city on Sunday.
Noting that the farmers are not getting fair prices for their crops in view of high production costs, Ibrahim Khaled placed two policy prescriptions at the program to ensure a fairer outcome for the farmers.
The first proposal is to buy the crops directly from farmers giving them cash incentives by setting up one purchasing centre for every 2-4 villages across the country. The second one is to ensure preservation of their crops economically by setting up adequate cold storages across the country.
"In many cases, the farmers miss their margins due to massive yield of crops. If they can preserve crops at cheap cost during the peak season, they will get fair prices selling the crops few months later," he said.
The noted banker also said interest rates of all the agro-loans should be brought down to 10 percent.
Focusing on the need for research and development in the sector, he said the government should provide adequate incentives for the agricultural scientists and relax the retirement age limit for them.
"There should be no retirement age limit for rare skilled professionals or scientists as it is not easy to get enough talented scientists to conduct research. In many other countries, there is no retirement age limit for them," Dr Khaled said.
Presiding over the function, the KIB President AMM Saleh demanded interest rate of agro-loans to be brought down to 2-4 percent, since the interest rate for regular loans has already been brought down to single digit, following a longstanding demand of the business community.
Director of Horticulture Wing of Agricultural Extension Department Kudrat-e-Gani said subsidies in the arable sector should be considered as investment, as it will provide a good return.
He said though the banks are supposed to provide soft loans for particular crops, the bank authorities are 'reluctant' to do so.
On the cash subsidy proposal for farmers, Kudrat-e-Gani said, "If exporters can get cash incentive, why not farmers who face such high production costs?"
Director General of Livestock Services Department Dr Md Ainul Haque demanded soft loan, subsidy and insurance system for livestock farming, considering the high risks incurred by farmers here.    �UNB