Prime Minister Tarek Rahman has directed the authorities to prepare a comprehensive, accurate, and transparent database of all farmers across the country by next December. He emphasized that the process must be carried out through proper verification to ensure that genuine farmers receive their rightful benefits.

The directive was issued during a meeting on the Farmer Card initiative held on Tuesday (August 4) at the Prime Minister’s Office in the Cabinet Division at the Bangladesh Secretariat. The information was confirmed by the Prime Minister’s Deputy Press Secretary, Hasan Shiplu.

According to Shiplu, the Prime Minister instructed that the Farmer Card should include the farmer’s identity along with a photograph and QR code. The card should also store information related to agricultural production, government assistance, and agricultural market activities, and authorities have been directed to design the card accordingly.

The meeting was informed that the process of opening bank accounts for farmers has already begun. Once the necessary preparations are completed, the cards will be distributed to farmers in phases.

The government introduced the Farmer Card to ensure that agricultural subsidies, concessional loans, incentives, and other government benefits reach genuine farmers quickly and efficiently.

During the current fiscal year, 4.3 million farmers will receive the benefits of the Farmer Card program. Over the next three years, the government plans to bring approximately 20 million farmers under the initiative.

The meeting was attended by Agriculture and Fisheries & Livestock Minister Amin Ur Rashid; State Minister for Fisheries and Livestock Sultan Salahuddin Tuku; State Minister for Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives Mir Shahe Alam; Prime Minister’s Adviser Mahdi Amin; Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister ABM Abdus Sattar; Special Assistant to the Prime Minister Shakirul Islam Khan; BNP Special Secretary Belayet Hossain; President of the Bangladesh Milk Producers’ Cooperative Union Limited (Milk Vita) SM Amir Hamza Shatil; as well as secretaries and senior officials from the relevant ministries and divisions.