The Disaster Management Watch (DM WATCH), a non-government organisation, called upon the government on Saturday to provide financial assistance to the farmers for Aman paddy production and cropping next year aiming to ensure food security in the country.
It also suggested a cut in prices of agriculture inputs, interest rate on agriculture loan and involving non-government organisations (NGOs) in the process of disbursement of farm loans to the farmers who have incurred financial losses due to recent flood and the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
The DM WATCH came up with the suggestions while revealing the findings of its study on the damages caused to agriculture by the lengthy flood and the pandemic.
The study was conducted from mid-May to mid-June, 2020, to address the current condition of farmers and farming sector in three agro-ecological zones (out of 30 such zones) of Bangladesh.
Manager (research and knowledge management) of DM WATCH Dr Faisal Kabir during a virtual press briefing on the day said that they had collected reports until June on the damages inflicted by the flood and the Covid-19 on agriculture.
He said about 30 per cent of agriculture lands were damaged across the country due to floods this year.
Mentioning the Prime Minister's declared stimulus package worth Tk 50 billion to offset the financial losses in the agri sector he said that the country's agriculture sector sustained financial losses worth Tk 12.23 billion due to floods.
He also said that 17,980 farmers out of 18,377 (who applied for loans) have received Tk 4.97 billion as loans from different banks.
He further said that due to the floods seedbeds of Aman paddy have been damaged severely that forced the farmers to delay the cultivation of Aman paddy.
"Right now they (farmers) need government help (mainly financial assistance) for making floating seedbeds for cultivating Aman paddy without delay," he added.
The findings said that the Covid-19 pandemic has threatened the country's agriculture and farmers.
The crisis has been aggravated by the devastating flood that followed and inundated 37 districts and more than 30 per cent for a long time.
Farmers of different regions of the country expressed frustrations about their field crops and cropping for next season, the findings said.
The findings also said that farmers have been facing multiple problems such as having insufficient cash for the next cropping season (56 per cent farmers), high price of inputs marketing issues (54 per cent farmers), and intensified labour shortage (56 per cent farmers).
The DM WATCH suggested to involving more female workforce in the agriculture sector, diversification of agricultural products, distributions of high-yield variety seeds to the farmers free of cost and reducing the import of agricultural products by cultivating locally.
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