Increased farm subsidies, urea price cut demanded

Bangladesh Krishok Samity on Wednesday demanded that farm subsidies should be increased in the proposed budget for fiscal 20011-12 and the price of urea fertiliser should be reduced immediately.


The demand came from rallies held by the BKS in a number of district headquarters across the country and one in front of the National Press Club.
Speakers at the rally held in the capital also demanded that the government should buy unhusked rice directly from the farmers by establishing rice procurement centres at union level, besides bringing the poor and the marginalised under the rationing system.
They protested the decreased agricultural subsidies in the proposed budget and said, while the government should increase farm subsidies for better food production, it had pushed the country's agricultural sector into a vulnerable situation by cutting the subsidies.
The speakers said the government increased the price of urea fertiliser on the excuse of its global price hike but in many countries farmers get fertilisers and other agricultural inputs free of cost.
They expressed the worry that the country's food production might decrease and it might face a severe food crisis, if the agricultural subsidies were not increased and the urea fertiliser price was not reduced.
Although the farmers are not getting a fair price for the newly harvested boro, the government has decided to buy rice from the millers to benefit the middlemen and mill owners, they alleged.
BKS vice president Lina Chakrabarty and general secretary Sajjad Zahir Chandan, Bangladesh Khetmojur Samity leader Anwar Hossain Reza, and Juba Union leader Tridib Saha, among others, addressed the meeting chaired by BKS vice president Nurur Rahman Selim.
Reports received from Bogra, Narsingdi, Modhukhali upazila in Faridpur, and Patuakhali said the BKS local units held rallies there to press home the same demands.
The Khulna and Sirajganj district units of the organisations also submitted charters of demands to the deputy commissioners concerned.
Source : New Age