The recent hike in fuel price will “definitely” impact the agriculture sector, but the government has no immediate plan to increase the subsidies on diesel farmers use to run irrigation pumps, said Agriculture Minister Abdur Razzaque on Wednesday.
 
“The process to provide subsidy in diesel to farmers for irrigation purpose is so complex. So, the government has no plan to provide any new subsidy in it,” he said.
 
Razzzque said this at a press briefing at his office after his recent visit to the Netherlands and the UK.

Read: Change food habit, reduce dependency on rice, Razzaque urges people
 
Besides, the government has now no plan to raise the price of fertilizer despite its four-fold increase in international market, he said.
 
Replying to a question about the recent hike in fuel and kerosene prices Razzaque said “Definitely there will be impact on agriculture sector and there is no question to deny it.”
 
He said the farmers have already been going through many problems and in the peak season this year they did not get desired price for their crops.
 
He, however, said farmers will not be immediately affected by diesel price hike as 40 per cent of the irrigation pumps are run by electricity.  
 
The minister further said that if the price of diesel falls in the international market Bangladesh government will also reduce it.
 
On the outcome of the visits he said the Dutch government has assured to provide necessary assistance to Bangladesh in producing high yielding variety of onion.
 
“There is problem in the country to preserve onion and due to lack of preservation onions are rotting and that’s why the Netherlands will provide technical assistance to us,” he said.
 
The Netherlands will send a trade mission in March next year to discuss support in agriculture sector and expansion of trade relation between the two countries.

Read: Agro revolution to be seen in saline areas: Dr Razzaque
 
The mission will provide support in building silos for preserving potato, production of climate-tolerate crops, building green and glass houses, he added.
 
During the UK visit, Bangladesh signed MoU with Food Standard Agency of UK for setting up modern testing labs and developing internationally accepted Phytosanitary certification system in the country, Razzak said.
 
This will help boost Bangladesh’s agro-products to European countries, he said.  
 
He said the government focusing on setting up agro-processing industry aimed at boosting agricultural exports. This will also help raise farmers’ income.