Farmers’ crisis could be solved: CPD
Farmers faced shortages of cash to meet their domestic needs and invest in crop plantation
The government could help needy paddy farmers by providing them with a one-time incentive of Tk5,000 each from the unutilised subsidies in different sectors, said the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) on Friday.
Subsidies in agriculture have remained underused in the past three consecutive fiscal years: Tk2,570 crore in FY16, Tk5,390 crore in FY17, and Tk3,800 crore in FY18.
Farmers faced shortages of cash to meet their domestic needs and invest in crop plantation, a CPD report pointed out before the proposed budget for 2019-20 fiscal year was presented on Thursday.
To solve this agrarian crisis, the CPD suggested that the government should come up with a one-time incentive for paddy farmers to the tune of Tk5,000 each.
“It was not impossible for the government to provide Tk5,000 as an incentive to the farmers,” said Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya, a distinguished fellow at the CPD, at the think tank’s post-budget press conference on Friday.
