Crop insurance on the cards

The government is going to introduce “Agriculture Insurance” system to assist small and medium farmers in case of their crop failure due to natural disasters.
“We have taken an initiative to introduce an 'Agriculture Insurance' scheme to provide the small and medium farmers with crop price support in the event of crop failure due to natural disasters,” said Finance Minister AMA Muhith while placing budget for the fiscal year 2010-11 yesterday.
But agriculture analyst Mahabub Hossain expressed doubts about implementation of agriculture insurance, as the minister did not propose for any allocation for the scheme.
“There is no concrete pledge about crop insurance in the budget as well as no allocation for its implementation,” said Mahabub, also executive director of Brac.
“I am very much disappointed with the proposed allocation to agriculture,” said he adding that emphasis should be given to accelerate productivity.
The government has also taken initiative to organise “Farmers' Marketing Group” and “Farmers Club” throughout the country so that farmers can get fair prices.
To facilitate marketing of farmers, the government has also taken steps to develop 128 agro-markets at the upazila level and 30 bazaars at the district level, said the finance minister.
The minister has proposed for allocating a total of Tk 7,492 crore for both development and non-development expenditures under the agriculture ministry for the fiscal year 2010-11.
He however proposed a reduction of subsidy for fertilisers and agricultural inputs to Tk 4,000 crore for the new fiscal from Tk 4,950 crore in the revised budget of the outgoing fiscal.
He said a program has been taken to distribute organic, green and bio-fertilisers to 97 lakh families to popularise such natural fertiliser.
In his budget speech, he pledged to protect 20,000 hectares of land from salinity every year.
The minister also said schemes have been taken to grow hybrid paddy on 12 lakh hectares of land. Efforts to grow salinity resistant BR-47 rice on half of the salinity affected 10 lakh hectares of land in the coastal regions, he added.
He said the government has allocated Tk 427 crore to expand irrigation facilities in the southern part of the country by utilizing surface water as well as mitigate water logging.
To achieve these goals, implementation of 66 programs at an estimated cost of Tk 379 crore is going on speedily, he said, proposing for allocating Tk 300 crore in the next fiscal year.
Muhith however did not pledge any additional allocation for agricultural research but the government is going to operationalise Agricultural Research Fund from the next fiscal year.
“The size of the fund now stands at Tk 412 crore. Research proposals have been invited in order to utilise allocations made under the Endowment Fund for enhancing agricultural productivity through crop diversification,” said Muhith.
The minister has proposed for raising farm loan disbursement target at Tk 12,000 crore for the new fiscal year from Tk 11,512 crore of the outgoing fiscal year.