Fertiliser eats up 74pc of farm subsidy in FY\\\'14

The government expenditure for agricultural subsidy stood at more than Tk 83.10 billion in FY'14 (until May), which is 92 per cent of the total allocation of Tk 90 billion, officials said.
An official at the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) told the FE that more than 73.60 per cent (Tk 61.16 billion) of the amount spent was disbursed for fertiliser subsidy purposes alone.
He said electricity rebate costs nearly Tk 2.66 billion in the ongoing Boro season.
Besides fertiliser and electricity, Tk 19.27 billion is in the process of release from Ministry of Finance (MoF) and the MOA, he said.
"Against the demand of 2.6 million tonnes of Urea fertiliser, nearly 2.33 million tonnes have been sold in FY'14 while nearly 0.9 million tonnes of urea will remain unsold," he added.
"Nearly 0.753 million tonnes of urea is now available while 0.145 million tonnes will be imported by June, that means there will be nearly 0.9 million tonnes of stockpile," he said.
However, the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) has primarily projected a demand for 5.3 million tonnes of fertiliser in FY'15 of which urea is 2.8 million tonnes.
Additional secretary at MoA Anwar Faruque told the FE that overall subsidy of the country is likely to be reduced in the upcoming budget.
"But the finance minister has assured us that the agricultural subsidy will remain the same in the upcoming fiscal year compared with that of the outgoing fiscal," he said.
Mr Faruque, also director general of the Seed Wing under MoA said: "We have to change our mindset, agricultural subsidy should be judged as investment to get better production."
However, experts said apart form the indirect subsidy given to fertiliser and power, farmers should be provided with cash subsidy during crisis, if any.
Besides rice, non-cereal crops like potato, vegetables, spices, cash crop like jute, tea sector should get subsidies.
Economist Dr Golam Moazzem said: "Commercial agriculture can be promoted through giving subsidy for non-cereal crops';
"Vegetables, fruits, flowers, processed foods now fetch nearly $600 million annually. The sectors deserve to be subsidised," he said.  
Chairman of Subaltern Communication Research Centre Delowar Jahan told the FE that overall allocation for agriculture (including development, non-development and subsidy) was 9.1 per cent of the total budgetary allocation in FY'09 which was reduced to just 7.9 per cent in FY'14.
"The government should give cash subsidy to the potato farmers as they have incurred a huge loss this year," he said.
"The government should follow prescription of farmers while making budget for the socio-economic development of the country rather than taking advice from the WTO, the IMF, the World Bank or their advocates in Bangladesh," he said.