SYLHET : Labour and Employment and Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Ariful Haque Choudhury will inaugurate farmer card distribution in Juri Upazila of Moulvibazar tomorrow.
Earlier, Prime Minister Tarique Rahman will inaugurate the farmer card distribution programme at Shaheed Maruf Stadium in Tangail Sadar tomorrow at 10 am, a handout said.
The farmer card distribution is a big step towards implementing one of the main pledges of BNP’s election manifesto.
In the first phase, these cards are being distributed among about 21,000 landless, marginal and small farmers in 11 upazilas of 10 districts across the country. Of them, 1100 farmers from Juri Upazila are getting the cards.
The government has set a target of distributing the card to 1.65 crore farmers in the next 4 years. The estimated cost of the programme is Taka 681 crore.
Through this card, farmers, fish farmers and dairy farmers will get a total of 10 types of special benefits, including cash incentives, agricultural inputs at fair price, irrigation facilities, soft loan and agricultural insurance.
The main goal of this initiative is to recognise farmers as a professional group, increase income and ensure transparency in subsidy distribution.
The BNP government has already waived agricultural loans worth Taka 1,550 crore of 12 lakh farmers as part of its election pledge.
To identify genuine farmers, this programme is being conducted by creating a digital database by dividing farmers into five categories, including landless (owners of less than 5 decimal of land), marginal (5-49 decimal) and small (50-249 decimal).
