Announcing this yesterday, Agriculture Minister MK Anwar said the measures covering a wide range of inputs including fertiliser, farm machinery and irrigation are aimed to bring relief to farmers and enhance agricultural output to make the predominantly subsistence farming a commercially viable one.

The newly passed national budget for fiscal 2004-05 raised farm subsidy to Tk 600 crore from Tk 300 last year.

The cost-cut will come in terms of subsidy for various chemical fertilisers like triple super phosphate (TSP), murate of potash (MP) and di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) to bring down their market prices at par with the already subsidised urea fertiliser. Subsidy for irrigation, free distribution of home-grown low-cost farm machinery, production of organic fertilisers at all the 12,500 agricultural blocks and doubling of public sector seed production capability from hardly 20 percent now to 40 percent next year are also among the steps to slash farm input cost.

The minister said this while speaking as chief guest at a book-launching ceremony in the capital yesterday.

The Forum for Information Dissemination on Agriculture (FIDA) in cooperation with crop science multinational company Syngenta Bangladesh Limited organised the function at the National Press Club for launching the book titled, 'Windows of Agriculture in Bangladesh.' The book, a compilation of 12 write-ups on core agricultural issues in the country, is the second in series since 2002 published under the 'FIDA-Syngenta Fellowship Programme.'

Minister of State for Agriculture Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir was the special guest at the ceremony.

The function was attended by, among others, heads, directors and scientists of different NARS (national agricultural research system) bodies including Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC), Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI), Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) and representatives from International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) and Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation (BADC) and journalists who contributed articles for the book.

Syngenta Managing Director Sarwar Ahmed delivered the welcome address and FIDA General Secretary Reaz Ahmad conducted the programme chaired by Editor of the book Dr M Golam Rahman.

The agriculture minister noted that Bangladeshi farmers make the highest expenditure on irrigation in the entire south and southeastern Asia. They spend 56 percent of the cost of paddy production on irrigation against only 26 percent in Thailand, 17 percent in India and six percent in Vietnam.

"In Andhra State of India, farmers are charged only 0.29 rupee per unit of electricity consumed for irrigation purpose while commercial power rate is 3.50 rupees per unit," Anwar mentioned, explaining how farming and farmers' interests are protected across the world.

The minister said soil fertility in the country has declined to a dangerous level partly because of imbalanced application of chemical fertilisers. "In mid-80s, prices of urea and non-urea fertilisers (TSP, DAP, MP) were at par but later on prices of non-subsidised fertilisers (TSP, DAP, MP) soured to such a level that farmers went for applying too heavy doses of subsidised urea, greatly harming the nutrient balance in soil."

Anwar pointed out non-formal sectors now meet about 80 percent of the seed requirements in the country and their qualities are not guaranteed. The government will now provide as much funds as required to raise quality seed production capability of the state-run BADC and DAE from 20 percent now to 40 percent next year.

The government will also provide poor farmers with low-cost home-grown farm machinery free of cost.

The minister stressed minimising the widening yield-gap of different varieties of paddy at the BRRI and at farmers' level.

Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir underscored better agricultural marketing and strong farmers unions or farmers co-operatives.

"If we fail to make farming profitable for the farmers, we'll not be able to achieve the millennium development goals," he said.

IRRI Liaison Scientist in Bangladesh Dr Hamid Mia, Dr Abdur Razzak and Jahangir Alam of the BARC, DAE Director General Tarik Hasan and BARI Director General Abdus Sattar also spoke. BADC Chairman Md Ismail, Director Mokhlesir Rahman and former principal of Haji Danesh Agriculture College Md Yasin Ali and many other scientists, academics and researchers were present.