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Agriculture Minister Dr. Md. Abdur Razzak. File Photo[/caption]
Combine harvesters, reapers and other agricultural equipment are being provided to the farmers with 50 to 70 percent subsidy in the regions. But even after the subsidy, farmers have to pay Tk 10 to 15 lakh to buy a combine harvester, said Agriculture Minister Dr. Md. Abdur Razzak.
He was speaking as the chief guest at a meeting with stakeholders on Thursday (May 27, 2021) to expedite online "Agricultural Mechanization" from the conference room of the ministry. The minister said in many cases farmers could not buy machinery with this amount. The same thing happened with other agricultural implements. Therefore, initiatives are being taken to get easy loans from various banks for farmers to buy agricultural implements.
The Agriculture Minister said, "Our objective is to make agricultural machinery locally in phases." At present most of the equipment has to be imported from abroad. We want to reduce it. In addition, we are emphasizing on locally manufacturing spare parts and repair factories so as to increase employment at the local level.
The minister called upon the manufacturers and importers of agricultural implements to come forward in this regard. Later, agro-machinery manufacturers and importers demanded bank loans for them, loans for farmers and distribution of agro-machinery to small village entrepreneurs to accelerate agricultural mechanization.
The workshop was chaired by Senior Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture Md. Mesbahul Islam. Additional Secretary (Planning) of the Ministry of Agriculture Dr. Md. Abdur Rauf, Additional Secretary (PPC) Md. Ruhul Amin Talukder, Additional Secretary (Extension) Hasanuzzaman Kallol, Additional Secretary (Administration) Wahida Akhter, Director General of the Department of Agricultural Extension Md. Asadullah and other heads of agencies, Project Director Benazir Alam was present.
Source: Online/SZK
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