Digital profiles of 1.62cr farmers on the cards 

The government is planning to make digital profiles of around 1.62 crore farmers to provide them with agriculture information online, a move aimed at increasing crop production by 30 per cent across the country.

As part of the project, the government will also provide smart cards for 1.09 crore farmers.

Once the project is implemented, agriculture experts can communicate with farmers in different areas of the country, giving them information and advice about better production of crops.

The agriculture ministry had sent the development project proposal to the Planning Commission for the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council’s (ECNEC) approval, a senior official of the planning ministry told The Business Post.

Through the digitalisation of good agricultural management, the project will also help raise digital awareness and skills of female farmers and agriculture entrepreneurs.

The cost of the project is estimated at Tk 107.92 crore, which will come from the government exchequer. The Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) will implement it by September 2024.

A senior official of the Agriculture, Water Resources and Rural Institutions Division under the Planning Commission said the project would help farmers increase crop production.

“Having digital agriculture profiles, getting smart agriculture cards, analysing digital agricultural data, and proper management of information online will help farmers make decisions and plans for improving agricultural production,” he said.

“We held an evaluation meeting on the project. We cleared it and sent it to the ECNEC for approval. The project is very important for farmers,” he added.

According to the project proposal, agricultural extension services are provided through farmer field schools, farmer organisations, exhibitions, training, field days, seminars, radio and television broadcasts, leaflets, and loudspeaker announcements.

In this system, it is not possible to get feedback on the quality of service from farmers. Besides, in case of any urgent need of farmers, reaching out directly to a DAE worker is time-consuming, costly, and difficult. As a result, there are various limitations in providing agriculture extension services.

The project’s main components are preparing digital profiles of 1.62 crore farmers in Krishi Batayan, creating and distributing smart agriculture cards among 1.09 crore farmers, verifying citizenship information of 1.2 crore farmers through the Election Commission, making the smart agriculture card database cluster in 31 modules, and providing services for farmers.

To make Digital Bangladesh, two innovative initiatives – Krishi Batayan and Krishak Bandhu Phone Seba 3331 – were launched in 2016 in a joint venture between the agriculture ministry, the DAE, and the Aspire to Innovate (a2i) programme.