FE Report
The fund allocated by the interim government for the purpose of agricultural research couple of years back remained idle mainly due to lack of policy support, official sources said.
"The entire amount of the fund still remained unutilised mainly because of absence of policy guidelines," a senior agriculture ministry official said.
Although the past caretaker government in its budget for the fiscal year (FY) 2007-08 launched a Tk 2.44 billion 'endowment fund' for the agri-research purpose, the fund was latter enhanced to Tk 3.5 billion in the FY 2008-09, sources said.
However, with the passage of time the fund has grown over Tk 4.10 billion with the gain from bank interest.
Assisted by the World Bank, the caretaker administration launched the research fund with an objective to help boost the country's agriculture sector through increased productivity.
Allocating Tk. 1.85 billion for agricultural research and agricultural rehabilitation assistance for maintaining the growth of crop production, the Finance Minister while presenting the budget for FY 2009-10 said the proceeds from investment of Agriculture Research Endowment Fund, created in FY 2007- 08, will be used for agriculture research.
Agri research fund remains unutilised
FE Team | Published: April 29, 2010 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00
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