The Department of Agricultural Marketing (DAM) has taken a project to enhance capacity of 81 grain warehouses across the country, aiming to turn marginal farmers into agri entrepreneurs.
Farmers could deposit above 17,710 tonnes of their crops like paddy, maize, wheat and get an 80-percent loan against the value of their deposited crops.
It was revealed at a workshop titled "Role of grain warehouse modernisation and digitisation project" to help farmers get fair price. The workshop was organised at the Krishibid Institution, Bangladesh (KIB) in the city on Tuesday.
Dr Fatima Wadud, director of the project, presented the keynote while additional secretary of agriculture ministry Mahbubul Haque Patwari, DAM director general Masood Karim, BADC member director Md Mustafizur Rahman and UNIDO country representative Md Zaki Uz Zaman, among others, spoke.
A three-year project has been scheduled from October 2023 to June 2026 to make the food storages commercially viable. The existing warehouses will be modernised during the period, she added.
This project will cover a total of 81 warehouses in 56 upazilas of 27 districts. Farmers could borrow up to 80 per cent loan for their crops.
Farmers would not have to face any problem in getting loans as the project will help them, she said.
She also said that from 2019 to now, a total of 18,189 farmers have deposited 20,377 tonnes of food grains and have received loans of more than Tk 248 million.
Dr Fatema Wadud said that farmers need cash after harvesting the grains and are forced to sell the grain at a lower rate.
Taking loans from banks against grain deposits will meet the need for cash, she said.
Mahbubul Haque Patwari said that grain warehouse loan programme will ensure local food storage and security by storing grains in warehouses.
The marketing capacity of the farmers will increase and they will be able to take advantage of the price by selling the grains at convenient time in the market, he said.
DAM Director General Masood Karim said the capacity of the food storages will be increased to 17, 710 tonnes.
Warehouses and its linked farmers would get Tk 220 million loan.
All the storage will be renovated or new building would be made in necessity, he said.
The project has been designed to make farmers entrepreneurs and boost agricultural commercialisation.
DAM has a vision that it would imitate the success of the warehouses in every upazila of the country, he added.
He also informed that grain warehouse loan programme has been running for more than four decades in the country.
In light of its successes and the problems identified, and considering the current period of agriculture, a decision has been taken to formulate the "modernisation, digitisation, and expansion scheme" for the grain warehouse credit programme.
This new scheme aims to further modernise and digitise operations, enhancing the programme's multipurpose utility to better meet the needs of farmers and address regional requirements, he said.
tonmoy.wardad@gmail.com