The government has set a plan to provide farmers with nearly Tk 108 crore incentives to encourage cultivate high-yielding varieties of rice aiming to offset inflation and reduce import dependence.

The agriculture ministry in a statement issued today said the incentive will be given in the form of seeds and non-urea fertiliser to 15 lakh small and marginal farmers

Each grower will get 5 kilogrammes (kg) of seeds of the rice variety, 10 kgs of diammonium phosphate and muriate of potash for free for cultivation on each bigha of land, the ministry said.

“The distribution activity will start soon at the field level,” according to the statement signed by Md Kamrul Islam Buyan, senior information officer at the agriculture ministry.

Earlier, the agriculture ministry also declared Tk 90 crore incentive for farmers to promote hybrid rice cultivation in the coming boro season. The stimulus is under distribution, it said.

With the latest incentive, the government provides nearly Tk 200 crore to encourage boro rice cultivation.

The government’s decision to provide incentive comes at a time when the farmers are slowly shifting from cultivation of local varieties of rice.

Data from the BBS showed that area under the high-yielding varieties of rice seeds in all crop seasons combined grew to 81 percent of the total rice acreage in FY23, up from 73 percent in FY10. Likewise, area under hybrid rice, which provides higher yields than the high-yielding variety and local seed varieties, soared from 6 percent in FY10 to 10 percent in FY23.