Ministry 'ignorance' blocks Tk 43 crore farm funds
Staff Correspondent
'Ignorance' on the part of finance ministry bureaucrats has resulted in their failure to release Tk 43 crore to the agriculture ministry that would be used to provide farmers with support and training in the use of hybrid seeds crucial to increased farm productivity, a senior official in the agriculture ministry has told The Daily Star.The delay is despite the fact that in April 2004 the Finance Minister M Saifur Rahman and Agriculture Minister MK Anwar had formally agreed that the government should encourage the use of hybrid seeds as a way of tackling the need to feed a growing population. Even if the Finance Ministry approved the fund now, the ministry will not be able to utilise the seeds in the current season as half of the season is already over. Two consecutive floods last year caused colossal losses to the agriculture sector. Following the April 2004 meeting, the agriculture ministry had sent a proposal to the finance ministry, seeking Tk 35 crore for training farmers on how to develop seeds and provide them seeds and support for growing them. In addition, the proposal also sought Tk 8 crore for developing various types of seeds of rice, jute and other crops. The finance ministry did not however consider the proposal till December 22 where it simply asked the agriculture ministry to revise it. A top official of the agriculture ministry told The Daily Star that the finance ministry wanted a revised proposal because, " its officials are not much aware of various kinds of rice seeds. Their ignorance about the seeds has resulted in their lack of interest and delay of any decisions on the proposal." "Bureaucrats are delaying the process despite a political decision on the matter." Hybrid seeds are already being used but farmers' lack of knowledge of them has led to lower production or under-utilisation of the seeds. The April 2004 meeting between the two ministers had concluded that the situation could be improved if the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE), Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI), Bangladesh Jute Research Institute (BJRI) and Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation (BADC) are given the task of developing the seeds, train the farmers and provide support to them. The meeting also agreed that the DAE would produce 25 percent and the BADC 10 percent of the total demand for seeds during the current fiscal year The agriculture ministry's October proposal also stressed the role of the BRRI and BJRI in seed production. The proposal pointed out that the BADC alone needs 40 percent excess seeds from the beginning of the farming season to increase its supply of seeds to 10 percent from five percent now.
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