Wheat production is likely to decline further this season as farmers are switching to other crops following the attack of a fungal disease on the fields.
Persistent low prices of the cereal in the domestic market were also discouraging them from wheat farming, said farmers and experts.
The declining trend in domestic production is causing a surge in import of the cereal considered the second staple of the country.
Wheat production declined by 12 per cent to 1.15 million tonnes last fiscal year (FY'18) compared to that of FY'17, according to the data available with Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS).
In the FY 1997-98, wheat output reached its peak of 1.802 million tonnes.
Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) has reduced its wheat acreage target to just 0.4 million hectares this year against 0.5 million hectares last year.
According to the monitoring unit of DAE, wheat cultivation on 18 per cent of the targeted land was completed until Thursday against 23 per cent in the corresponding period of last year.
Wheat cultivation goes on from mid-November to mid- January and harvest begins in March.
Dr Md Abdul Muyeed, director at the field service wing of DAE, said many farmers opted for vegetable and maize farming in the current year after incurring losses for wheat cultivation last year.
"Persistent lower prices and an attack of fungal disease come as a double blow to farmers," he added.
And a ban imposed on wheat cultivation in the south-western districts like Kushtia, Jhenaidah, Jashore, Chuadanga, Meherpur, Narail, and Magura to control the blast infection caused a decline in acreage, he said.
The fungal disease hit wheat fields in the south-western districts for the first time in 2015.
Dr Muyeed said the ban had been lifted this season.
Md Hedayet Ali, a farmer at Ranisankail in Thakurgaon district, told the FE recently that he incurred losses last year by cultivating wheat on three bighas of land (one bigha = 33 decimals in the area).
He said wheat prices were only Tk 550-Tk 600 per maund (40 kgs) when production cost was minimum Tk 720.
Demand for local wheat was limited as cheaper imported products dominate the market, he said.
However, many farmers in the south-western districts like Jashore, Magura and Narail told the FE that they would not grow wheat this year fearing the fungal blast that destroyed 80 per cent fields in 2015.
They also cited lower price as another reason for not growing wheat.
Dr Naresh Chandra Deb Barma, director general of Bangladesh Wheat and Maize Research Institute (BWMRI), told the FE that they were supplying a new seed variety of wheat--- BARI Gom-33 (BARI Wheat-33).
The variety is blast-resistant and enriched with zinc, he said.
The institute in collaboration with DAE has been organising workshops in various places in the southern districts to encourage farmers for wheat farming again from this year, he added.
According to the Directorate General of Food (DGoF), the country's demand for wheat is now above 7.0 million tonnes. The demand is rising by 5-6 per cent year-on-year basis.
Less local production has been forcing the country to import the cereal in a large volume every year.
Wheat import hit an all-time high of 6.1 million tonnes worth US$ 1.6 billion last FY, according to the food ministry.
Some 2.3 million tonnes of wheat were imported in the first four months of the current fiscal year which was 2.05 million tonnes in the corresponding period of last fiscal.
