Loan waiver alone won’t end farmers’ woes: Patwary

National Citizen Party (NCP) Senior Joint Convener Nasiruddin Patwary has welcomed the government’s decision to waive agricultural loans of up to Tk10,000, including interest, for small-scale farmers, but warned that the relief would be short-lived unless the underlying causes of farmers’ indebtedness were addressed.

In a Facebook post on Thursday, he cited government figures showing that about 14.34 lakh farmers had benefited from the loan waiver.
“The debt has been waived, but who will address the root causes that led to it?” he asked, warning that farmers could fall into the same debt trap again.

Patwary raised concerns over alleged irregularities in fertiliser dealership appointments, saying at least 45 of the 57 selected dealers in Lakshmipur were affiliated with the BNP or its associated organisations. He also referred to allegations of financial transactions exceeding Tk1 crore in connection with dealership allocations in Pirgachha.