The government this month started distributing agricultural input assistance cards to some 21 million farmers to identify all categories of farmers, reports BSS.
The move is aimed to recognize the ancient profession by the state and reach agri input assistance to the farmers, officials said.
Under the programme, the Ministry of Agriculture has decided to issue at least 23 million cards, 10 per cent more than an estimated 21 million farm families across the country.
"The Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) has already begun the card distribution to 21 million farmers, at a cost of Tk 57.50 million, and the distribution would complete by the end of this month", said Tahmina Begum, deputy director (field service wing) of the DAE on Thursday.
To this end, the DAE would distribute 59,45,660 cards to the same number of farmer families in the districts under Dhaka division,
33,83,904 cards in Chittagong division, 31,96,108 cards in Rajshahi division, 31,51,146 cards in Rangpur division, 27,44,814 cards in Khulna division11,77,181 cards in Sylhet division and 14,01,187 cards in Barisal division.
With the agriculture input assistance card, a farmer would get an opportunity to open a bank account with Tk 10, said SM Nazmul Islam, secretary of the ministry of agriculture, adding that some 98,54,606 farmers have already opened bank accounts with Tk 10 at the state-run commercial and specialized banks aimed at getting hassle-free services.
Under the newly introduced Agri-input Assistance Card and Cash Assistance programme, the government decided to provide cash subsidy to farmers through banks to buy fertilizer and diesel in the boro season.
Earlier, the government distributed agriculture input assistance cards to some 1,47,41,318 farmers across the country in 2009. Of them, 1,39,19,000 were male and 8,21,569 female.
Nearly 21 per cent of the country's GDP comes from agriculture sector.
