Investment in agri-tech key to lower production cost

Agricultural technology needs to be expanded to reduce production costs and make products affordable for consumers, and this requires increased investment. 

Hence, it is urgent to increase the allocation in the budget.

If farmers have to sell their produce at a lower price than the production cost, they will not want to cultivate that crop anymore. They will switch to other high-value crops, as has happened in the case of paddy farming.

Farmers are now prioritising other crops such as maize due to being unable to make a profit from paddy cultivation. However, this will disrupt food security. That is why agriculture should be given the highest priority in the budget.

Statistics show that rice production has increased by 0.52% in the last three years, while the population growth rate is over 2%. Yet, this rice is the most important part of our food security. The main reason for this situation is that the selling price does not cover the production cost.

We are seeing that the size of the agricultural budget is continuously decreasing compared to the main budget; in FY12, the agricultural allocation was 10.56% of the total budget, but in the current fiscal year, it has come down to 5.74%.

The amount of agricultural subsidy has also decreased from 6.4% to 2.3% during the same period. But it is important to get out of this situation. There is no alternative to increasing the allocation by giving the highest priority to agriculture.

Because the impact of climate change is disrupting global food production. Since our import capacity has also decreased, increased production is our only hope in this situation.

So, to increase agriculture production further, investment in this sector needs to be expanded, for which the allocation in the budget needs to be increased. Because the matter is directly related to food security.

On the other hand, fertiliser prices were increased in 2022. At that time, international fertiliser prices had increased significantly. But now it has come down by 52%. The time has come to adjust this price and bring it back to its previous level. This will also reduce production costs.

Research is another important part of agriculture where investment is low. With climate change, increased importance will also have to be given to research and there is no alternative to increasing investment for this because global temperatures are constantly rising.

Again, the technologies that will come out through research will have to be made easily available to the farmers. Otherwise, the farmers will be discouraged from production.

A decade ago, 80% of agriculture was made up of crops alone. But now it is 50% crops and the rest is livestock, forestry and other sectors. So it is not possible to move forward without livestock.

Investment is also needed in this sector. Because egg and meat prices are currently high, people cannot eat them. Here the government can play a role in reducing the price of feed, by providing subsidies so that the price of livestock products can be reduced.

For this, there is no alternative to allocating at least 10% of the main budget to agriculture. The government will have to think anew now to give more importance to the agricultural budget.

Dr Jahangir Alam Khan is a former member director of the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council.