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Food import cost ballooning
FROM PAGE B1
Bangladesh also has good prospects in diversified dairy products thanks to the increasing milk production by the expanding dairy industry.
“The government should patronise private operators to raise high-end dairy output like cheese and butter. This will require technical efficiency to compete with the competitors in the market,” said Kabir.
Anwar Faruque, a former agriculture secretary, said, “There is no alternative to giving importance to the production of import- substitute foods.”
Of the eight major commodities, edible oil and oil seeds account for a major portion of the import cost.
Faruque said the government can devise a plan to encourage the use of rice bran oil as it could be easily produced by auto rice mills.
“Currently, we can utilise 20 per cent of the rice bran produced in the country. The rest 80 per cent is going outside of the country.”
MA Sattar Mandal, a former vice-chancellor of the Bangladesh Agricultural University, suggested diversification of production through increased use of technologies.
“This will facilitate raising production and bringing down imports.”
The government is taking a Tk 7,214-crore project to modernise and improve the agriculture sector.
“This will enhance the diversified production of crops,” said Prof Alam.
In Bangladesh, about 73 per cent of cropland is currently used for rice cultivation, down from more than 80 per cent in the past.
“This is positive. But the main challenge is to increase productivity,” Prof Alam said.
“After ensuring high productivity of rice, we will have to focus on other high-value crops.”
Agriculture Minister Muhammad Abdur Razzaque said: “Bangladesh is not the lone country that is facing a high cost for importing foods. Other countries are also facing the same situation.”
He said every year, around 20 lakh people are added to the population, which means a higher requirement for food. At the same, the arable land is decreasing gradually for non-agricultural use such as building houses.
“This is a challenge. As the land is shrinking, scientists are trying to develop high-yield varieties of crops.”
According to the minister, Bangladesh does not have a favourable climate for increasing wheat production, so the country needs to rely on imports.
He describes maize and mustard as very promising crops.
In the past, it was difficult to grow mustard after the aman harvesting because of the long duration of the paddy.
Earlier, it took 140-160 days for the aman paddy to be ready for harvesting. Now, scientists have developed a new variety of the crop, which could be harvested in 110-115 days.
“This has created the scope for mustard cultivation after the aman harvest,” Razzaque said.
Scientists have also developed improved varieties of mustard with yields standing at eight to nine maunds per acre.
“Our mustard cultivation target has exceeded this year. We want to reduce edible oil imports by half by the next three years,” the agriculture minister said.
He said there are some high-yielding varieties of pulses.
“These are already being grown. I hope they will bring good results.”
As rice is a “politically sensitive commodity”, successive governments gave priority to increasing its production and directed more resources to research to develop improved varieties of the crop and take them to farmers in order to ensure staple security.