Prime Minister Tarique Rahman has directed officials to prepare a complete, accurate and transparent list of farmers across the country by December. He issued the instruction at a farmer card-related meeting at the Prime Minister’s Office in the Cabinet Division at the Secretariat on Tuesday, according to Deputy Press Secretary Hasan Shiplu. The list is to be compiled through verification and scrutiny to safeguard farmers’ rights.

The prime minister said farmer cards, carrying photographs and QR codes, should store information on each farmer’s identity, agricultural production, government assistance and agricultural markets. He instructed officials to design the cards with these requirements in mind. The meeting was told that work to open bank accounts for farmers has already begun.

The farmer card programme was introduced to help subsidies, easy-term loans, incentives and other government benefits reach genuine farmers quickly and easily. After necessary preparations are completed, cards will be distributed to farmers in phases. The scheme is set to benefit 4.3 million farmers in the current fiscal year, with plans to bring about 20 million farmers under the programme within the next three years.