Boost agro-production through cooperatives: PM

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Saturday called on the young people to come forward to boost agricultural production and improve livelihood of the rural people through cooperatives.

"We think cooperatives are absolutely essential for our agricultural production, life and livelihood of people as cooperatives create enormous scopes for us in a densely populated country like ours. Paying attention to it, youths will have to strengthen cooperatives," she said.

The prime minister was addressing a function, arranged to mark the 51st National Cooperative Day-2022 and distribute the National Cooperative Award-2021 at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre (BICC), joining it through a virtual platform from Ganabhaban.

The theme of the day this year is "Philosophy of Bangabandhu is Development through Cooperatives."

Sheikh Hasina stressed the need for giving utmost importance to cooperatives for the development of the country's people.

"Our young generation has to come forward. If the young generation comes forward and conducts activities through cooperatives uniting all the people of a village, we'll be able to go forward much," she said.

The prime minister said her government has been working for the people and wants to create scopes so that every individual can improve their life and livelihood.

She said her government opened every sector for private entrepreneurs so that employment is created.

Talking about inflation, Sheikh Hasina said prices of all commodities have soared throughout the world due to the Russia-Ukraine war and Covid-19, which affected Bangladesh also. "Now almost all the countries are now suffering due to high inflation."

She said now Bangladesh needs to procure fertilisers, fuel and edible oil at very high prices amid high transportation costs for the sake of people and keep the agricultural production uninterrupted.

With the theme of "the Philosophy of Bangabandhu is Development through Cooperatives," the day is being observed in the country this year.

The prime minister emphasised on raising production and savings to offset the brunt of the current global crisis.

She said the cooperative societies have been playing their roles effectively in Bangladesh. "I believe that Bangladesh can achieve economic self-dependency through cooperative movement," she said.

She said the current progress of Bangladesh should in no way be interrupted. Though the Covid-19 and current war and sanctions slowed down the progress to some extent, the government goal is to go forward overcoming this situation and build the country as golden Bangla as dreamt by Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, she added.

Sheikh Hasina said her government's goal is that the rural people would get civic facilities, an improved life and lead a decent life.

She said several schemes, including 'My House My Farm' (Amar Bari Amar Khamar) and 'My Village My Town' (Amar Gram Amar Shohor) programmes, were taken by her government for the development of rural people.

"We want to transform every village into a town," said the Prime Minister.

At the time, she stressed the need for the construction of modern houses through cooperative societies to make modern flats affordable for the villagers as well as protect arable lands by stopping the indiscriminate construction of homes everywhere. The government has also started a project titled 'Palli Janapad' to construct modern houses in a planned way for the rural people, she said.

The prime minister said her government took the 'My House My Farm' scheme and micro-saving project under the scheme so that the poor people don't need to bear the burden of micro-credit.