RAJSHAHI, Jan 20, 2024 (BSS)- The government under the dynamic and prudent 
leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been working relentlessly to 
boost agricultural production to make the country self-reliant in food.

By adopting various demand-driven projects and initiatives, the government 
has already attained significant successes in this field during the last 15 
years. The country's people are enjoying the fruits of the successes 
immensely.

The observation came at a daylong Rajshahi and Bogura regional workshop by 
agricultural experts, researchers, scientists and others concerned at 
Shilpakala Academy auditorium here today.

The Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) organised the workshop on behalf of its 
"Programme on Agricultural and Rural Transformation for Nutrition 
Entrepreneurship and Resilience in Bangladesh (PARTNER)" project.
Secretary to the MoA Wahida Akter addressed the workshop as the chief guest 
with Director General (DG) of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) 
Badal Chandra Biswas in the chair.
 
Chairman of Bangladesh Agriculture Research Council (BARC) Dr Sheikh Muhammad 
Bokhtiar, Chairman of Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation (BADC) 
Abdullah Sajjad, DG of Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute (BARI) Dr 
Debashis Sarker, DG of Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) Dr Shahjahan 
Kabir and DG of Bangladesh Sugar Crop Research Institute Omor Ali also spoke.

The meeting was told that the MoA has adopted Taka 7,214 crore project to 
promote crop diversification and ensure food safety, aiming to gradually 
reduce the country's dependency on imports supported by the World Bank (WB) 
and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

Under the five-year project, the government will provide "Krishak Smart Card" 
to each of 1.8 crore farmers so that they can get input subsidies and credit 
support, according to documents of the planning commission and agriculture 
ministry.

The project is intended to extend the cultivation area of non-rice cereals 
such as pulses, oilseeds and horticulture crops by two lakh hectares. 
Currently, the country has 88.29 lakh hectares of cultivable land.

It will also train up 20,000 youths and women entrepreneurs and build up 
resilience in the agro-food value chain of Bangladesh.

In her remarks, MoA Secretary Wahida Akter said they are hopeful to build a 
solid foundation for the country's agriculture sector through this project to 
face the challenges of the graduation from the least developed country status 
in 2026.

"Whatever we wanted to do in agriculture for so long, through this project, 
we want to coordinate everything," she said.

On distributing the "Krishak Smart Card", she said a database of farmers 
would be created across the country to ensure that the government benefits 
reach the real farmers.