SOHEL PARVEZ

For the first time, Bangladesh has bagged more than 4 crore tonnes of rice in a fiscal year (FY) thanks to increasing yields of the most grown crop, according to official data.

Local farmers have been gradually switching to high-yielding and hybrid varieties of the cereal grain, bringing the country’s need for rice imports down to zero.

Estimates by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) show that farmers bagged 4.10 crore tonnes of rice in FY 2023-24, up by 4.1 percent year-on-year in what was the highest growth in six years.

The largest growth in yields came from Aman paddy, which was harvested in the previous winter ahead of Boro paddy in the dry season. Boro is the principal rice crop in Bangladesh.

Farmers got about 2.10 crore tonnes of rice through the Boro harvest in the May-June period early this calendar year.

FY24 marked the fifth year of a consistent rise in rice production with Wais Kabir, a former executive chairman of the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council, linking the spike to yield enhancement.

“One of the main factors is that farmers have shifted to cultivating modern varieties of rice. They are growing more high-yielding and hybrid varieties. The acreage has also risen over time,” he said.

Jahangir Alam, an agricultural economist, said increased rice production cut import of the cereal grain.

“We did not have to import any rice [in FY24]. Besides, this did not have much of an impact on prices as it seems public and private stocks were adequate,” Kabir added.

Data of the food ministry shows that Bangladesh imported 10.56 lakh tonnes of rice in FY23 compared to zero public and private imports as of October 7 this year.

Kabir also said one of the reasons behind the zero rice imports was a surge in wheat imports.

The use of wheat by bakery and food processing industries as well as animal feed has increased. This contributed to the reduced requirement for rice, he added.