Farmers' card to make farmers self-reliant and prosperous: Prime Minister

 

Farmers' card to make farmers self-reliant and prosperous: Prime Minister

 Tangail, April 14, 2026 : Prime Minister and Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Chairman Tarique Rahman has said that the government has introduced the farmer card to make the country's farmers self-reliant and prosperous.

The Prime Minister said this while formally inaugurating the Farmers Card Program at Shaheed Maruf Stadium in Tangail on Tuesday afternoon.

The Prime Minister said, 'The goal of the current elected government is to make farmers self-reliant and prosperous. That is why we have given this farmer card.'

The Prime Minister inaugurated the pre-pilot project across the country by handing over 'Farmer Cards' to 15 marginal farmers on an experimental basis in 11 upazilas of the country.

As soon as the Prime Minister pressed the button on her laptop at 12:22 p.m., 2,500 taka in cash was transferred to the bank accounts of each of 22,067 farmers in 11 upazilas of the country, including Tangail, via mobile phone.

The Prime Minister said, 'You must be aware that through the Krishak Card, we will try to provide 10 benefits directly to the farmers, InshaAllah. Through the 10 benefits, the farmer will be able to change his position in many areas.' 

Referring to the party's election manifesto, the BNP chairman said, "All the people present on this stage may not be directly involved in farmers or agriculture. But there is someone in our family who is involved in agriculture. Out of all the people in Bangladesh, there are 40 million families and some of their families are involved in agriculture, meaning that the main profession of this country is agriculture."

Tarique Rahman said, 'I personally believe, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party believes, the current elected government believes that if the farmers of this country are prosperous, if the farmers of this country are alive, if the farmers of this country are well, then the whole of Bangladesh will be well. The people of the whole of Bangladesh will be well.' 

The Prime Minister said that the government will deliver farmer cards to 2.75 crore farmers in phases over the next five years.

The Prime Minister arrived at Shaheed Maruf Stadium in Tangail by road from Dhaka. At 12:22 PM, the Prime Minister formally inaugurated the Krishak Card program. As soon as the Prime Minister pressed the button on her laptop, 2,500 taka cash went into the bank accounts of each of 22,067 farmers in 11 upazilas across the country, including Tangail, through their mobile phones. 1,453 farmers in Tangail received this money.

The Prime Minister handed over farmer cards and tree saplings to 15 farmers on stage. She told the farmers, "If the tree saplings I am giving you grow, please send me the fruits."

Prime Minister Tarique Rahman mentioned the various steps taken in the farmers and agriculture sector during the rule of late President Ziaur Rahman and Begum Khaleda Zia. 

In this context, he said, 'Martyr President Ziaur Rahman started the canal digging program, through which we saw that Bangladesh became almost self-sufficient in crop production in agriculture within a year. We saw that in the famine of 1974, countless people died of starvation in the country. In that Bangladesh, we saw that during the time of Martyr President Ziaur Rahman, agricultural production doubled due to the digging of canals and the provision of irrigation facilities to farmers. At that time, Bangladesh was able to export food abroad, albeit in small quantities.'

The Prime Minister said, "Every time the BNP has had the opportunity to govern the country, the BNP government has tried to stand by the farmer brothers. You have placed your trust in the BNP in the last elections, God willing, this government will fully honor that trust." 

He said, "I want to say, now is the time to build our country. Just as we will stand by our farmer brothers, we will also stand by the country's female farmers and sisters."

Referring to women as half of the country's population, Tarique Rahman said, "If we cannot make the women's society self-reliant, we will not be able to move this country forward. That is why I promised that if we are able to form a government, we will introduce family cards for the mothers and sisters of Bangladesh, for women, for female heads of families. By the grace of God, we have been able to start that work in the form of a pilot project. We will try to extend the benefits of this card to all female heads of families in phases within the next five years."

The Prime Minister said, 'The current government is the people's government. This government will try to stand by every person, regardless of party, class, or profession, whether it is the farmers, the mothers and sisters of the country, the imams and khatibs of mosques, or other religious leaders.' He said, "Our goal is the development of the country and the change in the destiny of the people. That is why we say, 'We will do the work, we will build the country, Bangladesh first and foremost.'"

Prime Minister Tarique Rahman addressed the countrymen, "Let us, every citizen of this country, whether we are in politics or not, whether we are farmers or not, whether we are students or not, whether we are businessmen or not, no matter who we are, no matter what profession we belong to, each of us has a desire... We want to see our country good. We want to see our country beautiful."

He said, "We want to see the people of this country living safely. The children of this country growing up in this country, growing up comfortably, eating, doing business, getting jobs, growing up safely and securely. That is our goal. We want to achieve that goal. But that goal is possible only if there is the cooperation of the people. That is why we want to move forward with the people, we want to move forward with the people, we want to build the country."

The Prime Minister said, 'By inaugurating this farmer card today, I am once again calling on people of all classes and professions of Bangladesh to come forward to build the country.'

The Prime Minister began her speech by extending New Year greetings and saying, "This is today's Pahela Boishakh program. Many of you must have an idea of ​​how Pahela Boishakh originated. Although it has now taken the form of a social event."

He said, 'Pahela Boishakh is actually related to the farmers of our Bangladesh. Whether in the field of agriculture or business, farmers start their accounts anew from Pahela Boishakh. From there, the Pahela Boishakh program came. Since the main issue of Pahela Boishakh is related to our farmer brothers and sisters, that is why we announced the inauguration of this program to issue farmer cards.'

The Prime Minister said that agricultural loans of up to Tk 10,000 have already been waived for farmers.

Highlighting the issue of marketing agricultural products and getting fair prices for farmers, the Prime Minister said, "Especially in the northern region of Bangladesh, where agriculture is a major area, we will try to stand by our farmer brothers, we will try to stand by our farmer sisters, we will try to provide assistance in agriculture. At the same time, we will try to ensure that not only agricultural products are produced, but also measures will have to be taken to establish factories related to agricultural products in those regions."

He also said, "We will take steps so that farmers can get more value for their products and so that we can export our agricultural products abroad."

He said, 'You saw it on the news yesterday - yesterday, I had a meeting with all the businessmen of Bangladesh who are involved in the agricultural product business, who have agricultural product factories, for about four hours. We listened to their problems and tried to find many solutions. So that they can invest more, involve more people, buy more agricultural products from farmer brothers and they can export all those products abroad.'

He further said that on the one hand, it will benefit the farmers, and on the other hand, we will be able to earn valuable foreign exchange for the country.

The Prime Minister said, "The farmer brothers have many problems. For example, Tangail's pineapple is famous. The yield of this pineapple is abundant. But, we cannot preserve this pineapple."

He said, "So that we can keep the pineapple even after the season. There are many products in Bangladesh that do not require cold storage or processing. If we can process them and keep them in cold storage, then the farmer brothers will benefit."

State Minister for Fisheries and Livestock and local MP Sultan Salahuddin Tuku, UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Representative Xiaokun Shi, and Agriculture Secretary Rafiqul E. Mohamed spoke at the event, chaired by Agriculture Minister Amin Ur Rashid and moderated by Additional Secretary Salim Khan.