The agriculture and jute ministries are working with stakeholders to help Bangladesh achieve self-reliance in jute seeds and end dependence on India, Agriculture Minister Abdur Razzak said Thursday.

The Cabinet Committee on Public Purchase has approved 12 procurement proposals including the import of rice, fertiliser and petroleum.

The government on Thursday reduced the irrigation charge rate of Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation (BADC) to 50 percent for continuing the production of agricultural products.   Quamrul Islam Bhuiyan, Public Relation Officer of Agriculture Ministry, confirmed the decision.

Low prices for crops in the previous season, the burden of loans and costly labour are discouraging an increasing number of farmers from growing boro paddy this year.   Agricultural experts said farmers in the southern region are turning away for various reasons, including increasing agriculture labour wage. This year, Khulna farmers did not buy 900 metric tonnes of boro seed of BADC.   Locals said aman paddy on 25,000 hectares and vegetables on 864 hectares of land were damaged during cyclone ‘Bulbul’. Besides, pest infestation damaged crops on several hundred acres in Rupsha, Botiaghata and Dumuria upazilas.   Farmers could not harvest anything but straws. Thousands of farmers were affected. Besides, they did not get fair prices for their produces in the aman season.   Md Liaqat Ali, Deputy Director of Khulna BADC (Seed), said cyclones ‘Fani’ and ‘Bulbul’ caused massive damage to farmers.   “There was a high demand for hybrid variety of,seed. Besides, many farmers opted for onion due to the unexpected price hike,” he said.   Sources at the agricultural office said 2,000 metric tonnes of seeds were allocated in the BADC’s warehouse of Satkhira, Kaliganj and Bagerhat for the current season. These include  BR-26, BR-28, BRI-29, BRI-47, BRI-58, BRI-63, BRI-67, BRI-74, BRI-81 and BRI-86 varieties of paddy.