Bangladesh government targets 24 million farmer cards over four years

The BNP-led government, headed by Prime Minister Tareq Rahman, has launched a large-scale program to issue farmer cards to approximately 24 million farmers over the next four years. The initiative aims to register farmers, provide financial assistance, and distribute agricultural inputs and government services.

For the 2026-27 fiscal year, the government plans to bring 43 million farmers under this program. The implementation will be centered around 14,180 agricultural blocks across 503 upazilas in 64 districts. Priority is being given to landless, marginal, and small-scale farmers.

Progress is already underway, with data collection and bank account openings in progress. To date, information has been collected from 1.925 million farmers, and 900,000 bank accounts related to the cards have been opened. A pre-piloting phase conducted between March and June distributed cards to over 20,000 farmers across 11 upazilas in 10 districts. During this phase, landless and marginal farmers received annual financial incentives of 2,500 BDT each.

The program is being implemented by the ‘Program on Agricultural and Rural Transformation for Nutrition, Entrepreneurship and Resilience in Bangladesh’ (PARTNER) project.