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Food crisis from flood ruled out

STAFF CORRESPONDENT
The government yesterday ruled out any possibility of food crisis stemmed from severe flooding that has already affected more than one crore people in 33 districts and continues to submerge new areas.
The officials at food and disaster management and relief ministry said all preparations have been made to tackle the flood and postflood situations.
The government now has a stock of over two lakh metric tonnes of rice ready in case of any major disaster, they said.
With the current stock of relief supplies, they can carry out relief operations and feed flood affected people for several months, claimed a high official of the ministry.
Besides, the government has received letters from a number of donor agencies willing to provide assistance to the flood affected people. Saudi Arabia has already delivered 75,000 metric tonnes of rice for the flood victims, he said.
Ministry of Food and Disaster Management and Relief in a meeting today will decide on whether the government would formally request those agencies for assistance, the official said.
Meanwhile, the number of affected upazilas rose to 182 yesterday with another 18 upazilas in
four districts being hit by floods, said a government estimate.
The government yesterday allocated 3,950 metric tonnes of rice valued around Tk 5.93 crore as relief for the 24 flood affected districts. Besides, Tk 36.50 lakh in cash was allocated for relief
and Tk 6 lakh for rehabilitating
damaged houses.
The allocations were given at a flood situation monitoring and review meeting at the ministry yesterday morning. Presided over by Food and Disaster Management and Relief Minister Chowdhury Kamal Ibne Yusuf, the meeting was attended also by Deputy Minister for Food and Disaster Management and Relief Asadul Habib Dulu and Secretary Siddiqur Rahman Chowdhury.
The ministry has been allocating relief supplies on the basis of requirements and has been in round the clock contact with district administrations, said a meeting source.
The government's total allocation so far stands at 11,300 metric tonnes of rice valued Tk 16.95 crore and Tk 1.17 crore in cash as relief and Tk 45 lakh for reconstruction of the damaged houses, the source added.
According to a government estimate, 57 people died in the current floods and the number of livestock killed was 6,277. A total of 704 bridges and culverts were badly damaged.
The government has opened 167 shelters for flood victims, the source said.
Floods so far have completely damaged standing crops on 2.65 lakh acres of land while partially affected those on another 4.7 lakh acres of land. According to the agriculture ministry, the worst affected were the early Amon plants, sugarcane, jute and vegetable plants.
The Ministry of Agriculture has got an approval from the finance ministry to develop late Amon plants on 100 acres of land for distributing among the farmers after recession of the floodwaters.
Agriculture ministry, however, is
planning to up the area to 200 acres as the flood situation across the country continues to deteriorate. Four government organisations -Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI), Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute (BARRI) Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation (BADC) and Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) would develop and distribute the Amon plants.
Sylhet, Sirajganj, Jamalpur, Sherpur Manikganj, Tangail, Chandpur, Hobiganj, Sunamganj, Netrakona, Kishoreganj, Brahmanbaria, Faridpur, Rajbari, Madaripur Mymensingh, Shariatpur, Pabna, Barisal and Narayanganj are the districts that have so far received government allocations.