Govt urged to give addl subsidies to farm sub-sectors

Agriculturists, academicians and lawmakers at a discussion Monday called for giving additional subsidies to the agricultural sub-sectors like poultry, livestock and fisheries in the upcoming national budget, reports BSS. They laid emphasis on increasing investment in higher education on agriculture and research along with a provision for accountability on spending the budget allocation by the concerned organizations in order to minimise misuse of public fund. They made the call at a pre-budget discussion on national agricultural budget and its recommendations held at the Jatiya Press Club in the city, jointly organized by Campaign for Sustain­able Rural Livelihoods (CSRL), Nagorik Sanghoti and Karmojibi Nari. The government has earmarked Tk 40 billion as subsidy for crop production in the current fiscal while the sub-sectors were left out which poses a threat to their survival, they pointed out. Shawkat Momen Shah­jahan, chairman of the Parliamentary standing committee on Agriculture Ministry was the chief guest at the discussion with the member-secretary of CSRL, Ziaul Haq Mukta in the chair. Vice-chancellor (VC) of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Agricultural University, Dr Abdul Mannan urged the government to put emphasis on coordinated approach for protecting arable lands as well as water bodies, forests and pasture-lands so that the country could meet its food requirement in future.