Staff Reporter:
Prime Minister Tarique Rahman has stressed the reduction of agricultural and food imports and increasing the production of such items which can be produced locally.
“Besides ensuring the food security of the country’s people, agriculture needs to be made more productive and profitable,” the PM said.
The PM made the remarks while attending a meeting with officials from the agriculture ministry at the Secretariat on Sunday.
Ministry officials said during the meeting that the production of mustard is being increased to reduce the dependence on vegetable oil import.
The officials also talked about the steps to increase the production and storage capacity of onions.
Highlighting the progress made in agricultural research, officials said a total of 1,090 different variants of crops have been invented so far, with 155 variants of paddy only.
During the meeting, officials stressed the reduction of labour and costs related to production and increasing the automation of the process.
Officials also discussed the Farmers’ Card initiative. They said the ministry has planned to bring 43 lakh farmers under the programme during fiscal year 2026-27.
The added that the ministry is preparing to provide the cards to around 110,000 farmers in the first stage.
