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Farm sector top priority of govt

Says CA; opens Boro harvest in Dinajpur

Our Correspondent, Dinajpur
The present caretaker government will give the agriculture sector top priority in the upcoming budget since the sector must be developed and strengthened to maintain a healthy rural economy, Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed said yesterday.
"If the farmers of the country are benefited, the rural economy will become healthy," he said while addressing a grand rally of farmers in Cheradangi village of Dinajpur sadarupazila.
Earlier in the morning, the chief adviser inaugurated the grand rally and Boro harvest in the region by cutting a sheaf of paddy in a field owned byfarmerYar Muhammad.
Members of the Santai community were performing traditional
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dance with the drumbeats to celebrate die beginning of Boro harvest
Fakhrudain .'Mimed in his speech expressed satisfaction that the fanners have achieved a bumper Boro production this season and the grana rally was organised to honour me farmers.
He called around two crore farmers ’national heroes’ who haw contributed to the building of a food security blanket He also congratulated agriculture scientists and agriculture officials at the grassroots level.
He called upon the farmers to continue the pace of their success with bumper production of Aush. Am an and other crops also.
He said the country's farmers have produced at least 1.75 crore tonnes of rice this year by cultivating about 45 lakh hectares of land, which is much better than what the authorities had anticipated.
The government is purchasing rice from farmers at Tk 28 per kg this year while the rate was Tk 18 last year, he said, adding that the farmers will get Tk 17,500 crore by selling Boro rice to the government this
He suggested that the farmers use gutti urea, a homemade urea fertiliser, instead of imported urea to reduce the import cost and pressure on the government diat is giving a subsidy of at least Tk 1.300 a bag
The government has also given direct fuel subsidy to ensure fanners' financial security, he added.
Fakhruddin admitted that the people of the country, especially the middleclass, are facing difficulties for the soaring prices of essentials. The price of rice on the global market increased two or three folds and its impact was eventually felt on the domestic market "Only the farmers of the country' can ensure food security for the entire nation by producing crops like rice, wheat and maize if they are given proper input security.' thechiefadvisersaid.
He added that rice prices are getting down compared to previous months with the start of Boro harvesting across the country.
Fakhruddin expressed deep concern at the decreasing water table of the district despite having several rivers. To mitigate the farmers' sufferings and ease irrigation, he urged the ministry concerned to take necessary steps to restore water flow of the Punarbhaba river.
Two successful farmers from die district--Md Motiur Rahman of Biral upazila and Md Abdul Hossain of sadar upazila-also spoke at the grand rally. The chief adviser congratulated Motiur for achieving 80 maunds of rice in an acre of land.
Agriculture Adviser Karim, who also attended the rally, said this . year the government has disbursed Tk 3.900 crore to 67 lakh farmers as fuel subsidy.
Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) Managing Director Md Shamsul Alam, Asian Development Bank (ADB) Resident Representative Hua Du and Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Country Representative Adrianus Spiikers also attended the rally. Md Nabiul Haque Mollah, deputy commissioner of Dinajpur, presided over the meeting.
After the rally, the chief adviser
visited several litchi orchards and enquired the farmers about the business. The fanners urged him to set up a litchi processing centre in the district.
Fakhruddin also inspected the state-run Boro procurement drive at the IHilhat LSD godown in sadar upazila.
After spending some time at the Dinajpur Circuit House, the chief adviser left Dinajpur at 1:20pm for Dhaka by an air force helicopter,