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Low Prices of Farm Produces

Matia feels bad for farmers

Staff Correspondent
Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury yesterday said she felt very bad when farmers did not get fair prices for their produces this winter but she did not spell out steps to ensure that for them.
“In Chuadanga, farmers were forced to sell cauliflower at Tk 5 a piece. As agriculture minister, I felt very bad when a farmer said he did not have money to pluck it (cauliflower) for sale,” she said.
“It is a very puzzling situation indeed. When prices of agricultural
products decline, farmers face losses and when prices go high, those are beyond the consumers' reach," Matiasaid.
The minister was speaking at a seminar on the Awami League-led alliance government's successes in agriculture and food sectors, and in building social safety net in the last three years of its tenure.
Organised by the AL, it was held at the National Museum in the capital.
AL leaders and agriculturists appreciated the government steps for farm sector which include introducing agricultural input cards, creating scope for farmers to open bank
accounts only with Tk 10, raising farm subsidies and loans. All this contributed to increased farm production despite the declining farm land. Besides, scientists went for more research activities in developing stress-tolerant crop varieties, jute genome etc, they said.
Jatiya Party Secretary General ABM Ruhul Amin Hawlader, MP, said the government has taken various social safety measures to ensure food security. But he urged the authorities to ensure fair distribution of food or cash under safety net programme.
There were allegations of irregularities in food distri-bution under this
programme.
In his keynote presentation at the seminar, columnist Shekhar Dutt said the government now has a stock of over 14 lakh tonnes of food grains. In fiscal 2010-11, production of rice stood at 335.41 lakh tonnes compared to 266 lakh tonnes in 2005-06 when BNP-Jamaat alliance was in power. Production of other crops too went up significantly.
AL leader Amir Hossain Amu chaired the seminar, also addressed by party leader Bahauddin Nasim, member of the parliamentary standing committee on agriculture ministry Abdul Mannan and agriculturists Kazi M Badruddoza and Zahurul Karim.