“The government has emphasised three issues – cutting production cost by modernising agriculture sector, increasing production and maintaining the export markets – to this end,” the minister said at a meeting in the city.

It was organised by the Agriculture Ministry at Bangladesh Agriculture Research Council (BARC). Food Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder, secretaries and rice millers were present there.

Razzaque said his ministry is considering giving 20 percent cash incentive to encourage rice export. “The government has decided to export 10-15 lakh tons of rice this year,” he said, noting that around 4.13 crore metric tons of paddy, wheat and maize were produced.

“We’ve to maintain rice export market as part of efforts to minimise the farmers’ losses. We’ll discuss with the Finance Minister in this regard soon,” he added.

He said the government’s image has been tarnished as the farmers did not get fair prices of paddy.

“Several farmers set fire to their paddy field this year. We don’t know what the situation will be in the coming years. So, we’ve to take proper initiatives to ensure that they get fair prices,” he said.

“We’ll purchase more paddies from farmers in the next year,” the minister said.

He said the government will assist in procuring modern agriculture equipment to minimise labour cost.    

Food Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder said they do not have enough warehouses to stock paddy.  

“The Agriculture Ministry has to provide accurate information on the annual production and make a proper list of farmers,” he said.