Commercialisation of farming in next five years, says minister

Agriculutre Minister Dr Md Abdur Razzaque said on Wednesday that the government would commercialise agriculture within the next five years in the intersts of the farmers.
"There will be true commercialisation of agriculture within the next five years. The importance of agriculture will increase in the years to come," he said speaking as the chief guest at a media dialogue on agriculture-2019 at a city hotel.
He said commercialisation of agriculture would help benefit the farmers. Besides, it will help attain self-sufficiency in food.
Regarding the subsidy to the agriculture sector, the minister said the country surpassed agriculture production target last year due to the increased subsidy given by the government.
He said that if needed, the government would increase the amount of subsidy in agriculture in future.
Mr Razzaque highlighted the role of media in advancing agriculture as it provides valuable information to the farmers including export of agriculture products and investment opportunities in the sector.
He said that the government was working to provide modern equipment/machinery to the farmers to increase the output of agriculture production.
In the open discussion the participants including the media persons stressed the need for ensuring safe food, food value/ nutrition, development of agriculture, and coordinated agriculture system and export of its products.
Agriculture Information Service organised the event which was presided over by its director Dr Md Nurul Islam.
Assistant professor of the Department of Mass Communication and Journalism of Dhaka University Dr Shamim Reza presented the keynote paper on the occasion.

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