Staff Reporter :
The investment in agriculture should be given importance in the budget so that the technologies developed for food security and the transformation of agriculture can reach the village level,” Binayak Sen, director general of the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), said at a programme on Thursday.
“Food security not only requires rice but also poultry and fisheries products. Budget support should be given to maintain their production.
For this, the agricultural technologies that have been invented should be prioritised so that they can easily reach the village level,” he said at the seminar on a research titled “The Political Economy of Agrarian Futures in Bangladesh.”
“If this can be achieved, a significant change will come,” he hoped.
The economist said it is very important to rationalise the tariff and subsidy policies in various sectors of agriculture.
“That’s why this year’s budget is very important for us,” he said, adding that all the discussions will be meaningless if there is no change in the budget for agriculture.
It should not be forgotten that 40% of the country’s population is still dependent on agriculture.
Abdur Razzaque, president of the Standing Committee on the Agriculture Ministry, said the country’s agriculture is influenced by four main trends: commodity prices, irrigation, climate change, and storage systems.
“These factors will shape current and future agriculture and will play a significant role in the transformation or future direction of the agricultural system,” he added.
The government-backed think tank has initiated a research project titled “The Political Economy of Agrarian Futures in Bangladesh,” focusing on the future direction of small farmers in the country.
Professor MA Sattar Mandal, professorial fellow at BIDS and emeritus professor at Bangladesh Agricultural University, and Geof Wood, emeritus professor of International Development and fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences at the Department of Social and Policy Sciences at the University of Bath, UK, presented keynote papers on the subject.