The government is set to prepare a roadmap aiming to increase rice production amid a growing demand of the main staple in the country.
Prices of rice increased recently despite record productions of Aush, Aman and Boro paddies during harvesting seasons and storing the highest quantity of rice by the government in its silos.
Considering the prevailing situation and keeping the prices of rice within the purchasing capacity especially of the lower- and middle-income groups, the government had no option, but to increase rice production, a high official of the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) told the FF on Thursday.
He said a meeting on the planned roadmap for increasing rice production was held on Thursday with Agriculture Minister Dr Mohammad Abdur Razzaque in the chair.
He said the meeting had discussed to prepare the roadmap that will be enabling the country to increase rice production within one or two years in of view of the growing demand for the staple.
The agriculture ministry official further said that cultivation of high-yielding varieties of paddies must be needed to increase rice production.
The arable land of the country decreases due to use of it for non-agriculture purposes, posing a threat to the increased production of rice, according to the MoA.
The consumption of rice has been increasing day by day due to the inclusion of 2.2 to 2.4 million new faces with existing population plus one million Rohingyas living in the country and also using rice for fish cultivation purposes.
The BRI-89 and BRI-92 varieties could yield around one maund of paddy on each decimal of land, said the MoA.
Speaking at the meeting held at the conference room of the ministry, Agriculture Minister Dr Razzaque stressed the need to expand rice cultivation in haor, coastal and hilly areas apart from the plain land.
He said the government will provide seeds of high-yielding varieties like BRI-89 and BRI-92 paddies to the farmers free of cost and will reduce the rate of fertiliser aiming to increase rice production in the country.
He laid emphasis on removing statistical errors to help get reliable data on production, demand and supply of rice.
He regretted despite having multiple agricultural and statistical officials at the upazila level, the government is not getting reliable data on rice acreage and production.
He urged the officials of Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) and the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) to prepare more reliable statistics on rice.
Agriculture Secretary Md Sayedul Islam and representatives of the seed association were also present.
According to the BBS and the Ministry of Food rice production was 37.5 million tonnes and import was 1.35 million tonnes during the last fiscal year (FY '21) in the country.
