Farmers will get ‘Krishi Card’ in New Year, which will get 10 benefits

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The government will issue ‘Krishi Card’ to all farmers across the country in three phases. This card will be divided into five categories. Through this, the card holder farmers will get 10 types of benefits including agricultural inputs at fair prices, irrigation facilities, agricultural loans on easy terms.

Distribution of pre-piloting ‘Krishak Card’ will be inaugurated on the first day of the Bengali New Year on Paola Baishakh (next Tuesday). Prime Minister Tariq Rahman will inaugurate this program at Shaheed Maruf Stadium in Tangail.

Agriculture Minister Mohammad Amin Ur Rashid gave this information in a press conference held at the Secretariat today. Prime Minister’s Finance and Planning Adviser Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir also spoke at this time.

Agriculture Minister Mohammad Amin Ur Rashid said that the distribution of farmer cards will be implemented in three phases. These are pre-piloting (experimental), piloting and nationwide operations. In the pre-piloting phase, landless, marginal, small, medium and large farmers including farmers engaged in the livestock sector and burnt farmers have been included in 11 blocks of 11 upazilas of 10 districts in addition to farmers who produce crops. Salt cultivators are also included in this, where applicable.

It was informed at the press conference that the cost of pre-piloting will be around 8 crore 34 lakh taka. After the completion of pre-piloting, pilot activities will be started in 15 upazilas till next August. In the light of its experience, a plan has been taken to complete the work of distribution of this card and creation of data warehouse in the next four years.

In the press conference, it was informed that in the pre-piloting stage, farmers, fishermen, livestock farmers and salt farmers of those 11 blocks are being given “Krishak Card”. It is a banking debit card. A bank account has been opened against this card in the name of the concerned farmers at the local branch of Sonali Bank. Information of 22 thousand 65 farmers has been collected till April 11. Among them, 2 thousand 246 landless farmers, 9 thousand 458 marginal farmers, 8 thousand 967 small farmers, 1 thousand 303 medium farmers and 91 large farmers.

Out of this, landless, marginal and small farmers will be given 2500 taka in cash annually through cards. This number is 20 thousand 671 out of 22 thousand 65 people.

Farmers who get the card will get 10 types of benefits, said the agriculture minister. These are one, agricultural inputs at fair price, two. Irrigation facility at fair price, three. Agricultural loans on easy terms, four, getting agricultural machinery at low cost, five. Government subsidies and incentives, six. Mobile phone weather forecast and market information, seven. Agricultural training, eight, advice on crop disease control, nine. Agricultural insurance benefits and ten. Farmers will get the benefit of selling agricultural products at fair prices.

The Agriculture Minister said that through the card, farmers can purchase various agricultural inputs including fertilizers, seeds, fish or animal feed using the point of sale (POS) machines provided to the respective dealers.