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Agricultural Development

10-year plan needs $7.2b investment

Staff Correspondent
The government has presented its development partners a new 10-year Master Plan for agricultural development of the southern region of the country.
The plan requires a total investment of Tk 57,802 crore equivalent to $7.22 billion for implementation.
The agriculture ministry yesterday presented the Master Plan at a meeting with development partners at the NEC auditorium. Finance Minister AMA Muhith and Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury attended the meeting.
The current existing Annual
Development Programme (ADP) covered by the Master Plan is worth $864 million, which accounts for only 10 percent of the total requirement, Additional Secretary of the Agriculture Ministry Md Nazmul Alam revealed while making the presentation.
The development partners' allocation in these programmes is currently estimated at around $750 million.
The presentation stated that there remains a wide funding gap of 81.2 percent. It said the government and development partners need to review funding status together and consider allocating funds according to programme priorities set in the plan.
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There should be regular consultation meetings of relevant agencies to work together on this, the presentation suggested.
The Master Plan has been prepared with technical assistance from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations (UN).
Representatives of different bilateral and multilateral development partners, including the World Bank (WB) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica), were present at the meeting.
They assured assistance for the
implementation of the plan and advised the government to involve the private sector in it.
Finance Minister AMA Muhith said, ‘There will be provision for a grant in the next budget to kick-start the process of implementing the findings in this report."
He hoped the fund would be properly used. Muhith also talked about involving the private sector to raise the investment needed.
Agricultural Minister Matia Chowdhury said the Master Plan would open up opportunities for inhabitants of the coastal areas who are often battered by thecapriceofnature.
She said if the Master Plan was implemented, not only will food supply increase but poverty will also be brought down.
The 14 districts in the southern region of Bangladesh, with a population of more than 3 crore, has generally been identified as the most disadvantaged area in terms of climate change. The entire region is beset with problems like recurring cyclones, salinity and food insecurity.
The government prepared the master plan against the backdrop of cyclones Aila and Sidr as per advice from its development partners in 2010 at the meeting of Bangladesh Development Forum.