Four lakh jute farmers to get seeds for free

The government is going to provide Tk 8.10 crore worth of incentives to farmers in a bid to increase jute cultivation and production across the country.

Under the initiative, the agriculture ministry will give jute seeds for free to 400,000 small, marginal and medium farmers, it said in a press release issued yesterday.

Tap here to add The Daily Star as a trusted source

Farmers will get 1 kilogramme of jute seed for cultivation on each bigha of land, as per the statement.

The distribution of jute seed will begin at the field level soon, it added.

Bangladesh produces roughly 80 lakh bales of raw jute annually with jute millers and spinners processing 80 per cent of it to make sacks, bags, yarn and twine mainly for export.

The rest is used by households and for other purposes, according to the Bangladesh Jute Spinners Association and Bangladesh Jute Mills Association.

Farmers grew 84 lakh bales of raw jute on 7.27 lakh hectares in fiscal 2021-22, up 9 per cent year-on-year. Traders exported 8 lakh bales of raw jute that year, showed data from the Department of Jute.