Govt should change focus regarding agri budget

The way the budget is allocated for the agriculture sector over the years needs to be changed. Because 30 years ago we were in a food production deficit, but now there is a surplus, instead of any deficit.

In other words, we should think about how this food can be managed, stored and marketed. Because the post-harvest loss of agricultural produce is up to 40%. Land is shrinking. It is very difficult to increase production by 2%-5%. But if we can develop the system, we can easily reduce post-harvest loss by 10%-15%, which will add to our total production.

For this, collaboration between the government and the private sector is needed. Importance should be given to the cold chain, supply chain, transport and storage. Due to the lack of these, on the one hand, the products are wasted, and on the other hand, quality is declining and the nutrition is decreasing.

In this year's budget, it has been said to encourage the establishment of cold storage. But it will not be like that. Allocation must be kept. The private sector should be approached with allocation. But this allocation has not been kept [in the budget]. India is offering up to 50% incentives for cold storage.

It's time to think about what people will do with the extra food. Processing is the only way for this. Investment and innovation in this sector should be increased. The government should give incentives for this too. But such matters are not mentioned in the budget.

Now our big problem is that farmers are not able to sell their crops and count losses. But how much is the system to change this situation? The Food Ministry can never start procurement on time, nor achieve the target. If we buy only 10-20 lakh tonnes of rice from the 4 crore tonnes of rice produced, it does not make any impact on the market. Even if the government had purchased half of the rice, there would have been stability in the market and it would have been under the control of the government.

The government is providing subsidies on fertiliser, which will surely be appreciated to continue to do so in the future. But at the same time, we have to think about the health of our soil and give importance to the production and use of organic fertilisers.

The government is spending on R&D [research and development] only for government institutions. But the private sector needs to be encouraged more. There are hundreds of varieties of government rice, but how many of them are popular? For this reason, it is important to increase the participation of the private sector here. Incentives should be given for this as well.

The government is repeatedly talking about safe food, but it is not mentioned in the budget in detail. This is also a big weakness.

Anwar Faruque is the former secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture and advisor to the Feed the Future Bangladesh Horticulture Activity