Agriculture Adviser Lt Gen (retd) Md Jahangir Alam Chowdhury today addressed a press briefing at the conference room of his ministry. Photo: PID

DHAKA, Sept 25, 2025 (BSS) - Agriculture Adviser Lt Gen (retd) Md Jahangir Alam Chowdhury today said the government is going to enact land use and agriculture land safety ordinance with strict rule for protecting the agricultural land so that crop land cannot be misused in any condition.

“The crop land will not be wasted in any condition . . . even the establishments would not be constructed on the double and triple crop lands,” he said.

The agriculture adviser said this while addressing a press briefing on the success, achievement and overall progress of the ministry for the last one year at the conference room of his ministry here.

The ministry high officials including agriculture secretary Dr Mohammad Emdad Ullah were present at the press conference.

The adviser informed the Journalists about his ministry’s progress in the last one year of the present interim government, which was formed after the July uprising.

He said the government distributed incentives of Taka 893.20 crore and gave other supports, including fertilizer, seeds and seedlings, at free of cost among 88.55 lakh small and marginal farmers in the last one year.

In 2024-2025 fiscal year, the adviser said the country produced a total of over 4.19 crore tonnes of rice –over 1.65 crore tonnes of Aman, 27.93 lakh tonnes of Aus and 2.26 crore tonnes of Boro.

In addition to this, the country also had produced over 1.15 crore tonnes of potato, 10.41 lakh tonnes of wheat,  about 73.99 lakh tonnes of maize, 44.48 lakh tonnes of onion, 7.88 lakh tonnes of garlic, 2.51 lakh tonnes of ginger and 16.42 lakh tonnes of green chilli.

Even the fertilizer price of a total of Taka 27,684.97 crore, including arrears of Taka 20,691 crore, has been paid. The government has completed the process of import of 30,000 tonnes of fertilizer at free of cost from Russia.

The government has saved Taka 233.61 crore through cracking the syndicate of fertilizer, he noted.

The fertilizer dealer appointment and fertilizer distribution integrated policy-2009 has been updated and it is now at the final stage.

Even initiatives have been taken to use the unused jute mills godowns as fertilizer godowns, said the adviser.

The International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation has agreed to provide US$200 million to Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation (BADC) as credit for purchasing fertilizer.

To this end, a loan agreement of US$ 100 million has already been signed. The government has taken initiative to use organic fertilizer. The pesticides regulations are being reviewed, he added. 

A total of nine projects have been taken with a cost of Taka 2,646.11 crore in the last year—while three projects have been reviewed and two projects have been cancelled.

The government will establish 100 mini cold storages for preserving the vegetables, he said, adding that the government is also going to construct special house and installing airflow machines for preserving onion and potatoes.

The potato price at the cold storage gate has been fixed at minimum Taka 22, per kg as the government will procure 50,000 tonnes of potatoes from the farmers.

The adviser said earning from the exports of agriculture products has increased by 10 percent, saying that mangoes have been exported for the first time to China and 62,051 tonnes of potatoes have been exported in the current season.

Even the government is constructing treatment plants for export at Gabtoli in the city.

Good Agriculture Practice is being followed for cultivating fruits and vegetables, said Jahangir Alam, adding that the GAP protocol has been approved finally for exporting 15 agricultural products like mango, jackfruit, guava, egg plant, yardlong bean, bottle guard, green papaya, potato, cabbage, snake guard , bitter gourd, Arum lobe, pineapple and Rusty lemon.

The locally produced raw cotton has been declared as agricultural product and a gazette has been published on June 5 this year in this connection.

The ‘akashmoni’ and eucalyptus plants have been destroyed for protecting the environment, said the adviser, adding that on the other hand, Taka 4 has been given as compensation for per plants for destroying the anti-environment plants.

Agriculture development outline planning 2025-2050 is being prepared to ensure sustainable, modern agriculture and nutritious food for all.

The species of different crops invented by BINA, BRRI, BARI and BARC have been distributed timely among the farmers. Even the integrated seed management planning has been undertaken for invention of new seed and quickly sending to the field, he said. 
A mobile apps ‘khamari’ has been introduced incorporating all the agriculture related information like fertilizer, seed, pesticides, irrigation, crop diversification, meteorology and diseases after brining all the villages under a database.

Training has been imparted to the officials on ‘khamari apps’ and ‘crop zoning system’.

Planning has been taken to use track and tracking system of the agricultural department, modernization of the agriculture marketing department and relating with international marketing research as the incentives for ensuring the fair price of the commodities of farmers.

Plan has also been taken to make seed management online.