Highly placed sources said Prime Minister Khaleda Zia approved the subsidy as per a recommendation of a five-member committee headed by State Minister for Agriculture Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.

The high-priority committee was formed at the prime minister's instruction to assess the agricultural losses brought about by the ongoing flooding and recommend measures to recoup that as well as safeguard farmers from further damage.

The rest of the committee members are the principal secretary to the PM and the secretaries of ministries of finance, agriculture, and fisheries and livestock.

The committee will sit again on August 7 to decide on further recommendations based on the latest assessment of agricultural damage.

Official sources said private sector enterprises usually bulk import the three kinds of fertiliser -- Triple Super Phosphate (TSP), Murate of Potash (MOP) and Di-Ammonium Phosphate (DAP). The allocated Tk 271 crore will be used to compensate the traders to sell these fertilisers at 25-percent reduced rates to farmers.

Talking to The Daily Star yesterday Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said the decision to provide subsidy on imported fertilisers is the first-ever in Bangladesh. It will help the flood-hit farmers cultivate the next crops and increase agricultural production.

The state minister said every year around 55,000 metric tons (mts) of TSP fertiliser is produced locally and around 400,000mts is imported, while for MOP and DAP fertilisers the country entirely depends on imports.

Along with this newly announced subsidy, Alamgir said, the government will continue the existing subsidy, worth around Tk 400 crore, on Urea fertiliser.

Turning to other government measures to aid the flood-affected farmers, he said the Ministry of Agriculture has decided to increase the number of beneficiaries of its programme to provide seeds, saplings, fertilisers and pesticides free of cost from 12 lakh farmers to 19 lakh.

"Now we have decided to provide 19 lakh small and marginal flood-affected farmers with seeds, saplings, fertilisers and pesticides for one bigha [33 decimal] of farmland free of cost," the state minister announced.

The government has also decided to sow seeds of Transplanted Aman, Broadcast Aman, wheat and vegetable on 1,600 acres of public and private land above the flood waters level to distribute the saplings among the farmers.

Quoting latest official records, Alamgir said over 9.86 lakh hectares of farmland were inundated in the current spate of flooding, with 80 percent of their standing corps completely damaged.

He said the flood has affected the farmlands of 271 upazilas in 43 districts and mainly spoiled Transplanted Aman on 61,944 hectares, Aus on 2.68 lakh hectares, Broadcast Aman on 4.61 lakh hectares and vegetables on 65,261 hectares. Around 96 percent of crops on those lands were ruined.

According to official estimates, there are 1.17 crore peasant families in the country, of which 37 lakh have fallen victims to the flood.

Of the flood-hit farmers, some are big ones who do not need any government help. There also are a good number of land-less peasants who do not need farming aid but livelihood ones. This latter group will get help from the ministry of relief and rehabilitation.