No plan for free fertiliser at the moment: Agriculture minister

Agriculture Minister Mohammed Aminur Rashid today told parliament that the government currently has no plans to provide free fertiliser and agricultural products to farmers across the country.

However, in order to increase agricultural production and support farming, 26 lakh metric tons of urea, 9.50 lakh metric tons of TSP, 10.50 lakh metric tons of muriate of potash (MOP) and 16.85 lakh metric tons of DAP fertiliser have been supplied to farmers at subsidised prices in the fiscal year 2025-26, he said.

In the fiscal year 2025-26, up to March 2026, Tk 16,240 crore has been provided as agricultural subsidies, said the minister while answering a question from AM Mahbub Uddin Khokon.

The agriculture minister, while answering another question from Reza Ahmed, said the government has taken various practical and timely steps to ensure food security for the people of the country, improve the living standards of farmers, achieve economic growth and support agricultural activities.

In order to implement the government's election promise, in the pre-piloting stage, only landless, marginal and small farmers will be given Tk 2,500 per person as an incentive for fertiliser, seeds and other agricultural inputs through farmer cards, he said.

Free seeds, fertilisers, pesticides and other inputs are provided under the Agricultural Rehabilitation and Incentive Programme for the development of agriculture. Out of the Tk 700 crore allocated for this sector in the current fiscal year 2025-26, 401 million taka has been released. This has benefited 2,522,000 farmers.

In order to implement its election promise, the government has already waived off agricultural loans of up to Tk 10,000 per farmer. The government is spending Tk 1,550 crore on this programme. About 1.2 million farmers are benefiting from this.

Following the “Voluntary Canal Digging Program” initiated by former president Ziaur Rahman, initiatives have been taken to dig and re-dig 20,000 kilometres of canals across the country. This will increase agricultural production, the minister added.