State Minister for Information and Communication Technology Zunaid Ahmed Palak has said that one thousand villages will be brought under smart farming by 2041 in several phases.
The state minister was speaking as the chief guest at a seminar on ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution and Agricultural Mechanization of Bangladesh’ organized on September 26 in a virtual platform.
“We have taken up a project targeting 20,000 farmers, creating 3,500 entrepreneurs and setting up 10 digital villages,” he said. Our deadline is that we want to digitize 20,000 farmers, 20,000 devices, 3,500 entrepreneurs and 10 villages by 2025 from the 15 devices we piloted in 2018. In this way, 20 lakh farmers, 20 lakh devices and 3.5 lakh entrepreneurs will be brought under smart farming by 2041 in phases one, two and three.
Zunaid Ahmed Palak also said that the government has taken various steps to achieve this goal of smart farming.
He said that for this ecosystem, we have brought together other components including our Digital Village Center, National Data Center, Digital Villages, MFS, DFS, Interactable Digital Transaction Platform and we are working with the Ministry of Agriculture, University of Agriculture, Bangladesh Krishibid Economics Association and ICT. We want to create a modern form of the golden Bangladesh of Bangabandhu’s dream by 2041, a digital Bangladesh based on technology and we want to encourage smart farming to build a better and knowledge-based Bangladesh by the 41st year of Sheikh Hasina.
MN Zeaul Alam, Senior Secretary, ICT Department and Mesbahul Islam, Senior Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture were the special guests on the occasion.
The keynote address at the seminar was presented by Professor Manjurul Alam, Department of Farm Power and Machinery, Bangladesh Agricultural University.
FH Ansari, MD & CEO, ACI Agro Link Ltd. was present on the occasion. The seminar was presided over by Sajjadul Hasan, President of Bangladesh Agricultural Economists Association.
