DHAKA, April 19, 2020 (BSS) – Fisheries and Livestock Minister SM Rezaul Karim today said the government would formulate a policy to resolve the crisis the country’s fisheries and livestock sectors are facing during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
“The ministry is going to formulate a policy within a week to resolve the crisis faced by the fisheries, poultry and dairy farm owners amid the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said.
The minister was speaking at an emergency meeting on fisheries, poultry and dairy sectors at the conference room of the Department of Livestock Services at Farmgate in the capital.
He said short, medium and long-term packages have been taken to bring pace in the ongoing programmes of the ministry aiming to address any possible unwanted situation.
Rezaul said a US$ 100-million proposal is set to be sent to the World Bank to give stimulus to the poultry and dairy sectors as emergency response under the LDDP.
He said his ministry has sent a letter to the Finance Ministry requesting to announce a Taka 2,000-crore stimulus package for the fisheries and livestock sectors and give soft loan to the affected farm owners to cope with the ongoing crisis.
Fisheries and Livestock secretary Rawnak Mahmud, additional secretaries of the ministry Kazi Wasi Uddin and Shyamol Chandra Karmakar, director general of the Department of Livestock Services Dr Abdul Jabbar Shikder and director general of Bangladesh Livestock Research Institute Dr Nathu Ram Sarker, among others, were present at the meeting.