Food import requirement stands at 3.9m tones

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FE Report
The country needs to import more 3.9 million tonnes of food grains in the current fiscal year to meet its higher level of food deficit, caused by a series of natural calamities, including the recent cyclone.
Of the total quality, the government will require to procure at least 1.0 million tonnes of rice while 0.9 million tonnes have to be imported by the private sector, Adviser for agriculture CS Karim told a press briefing Saturday.
Besides, 2.0 million tonnes of wheat will also be imported to meet the country's food grains shortfall, he mentioned.
Overall shortfall of food grains under the 'Public Food Distribution System' has been estimated at 1.17 million tonnes against the required stock of nearly 1.9 million tonnes for the next seven months, the adviser said.
At present, the official food grain stock is nearly 0.76 million tonnes, the briefing was told. Senior officials of agriculture, food and information ministries were present at the press briefing held at the Secretariat.
The adviser informed newsmen that the government had already initiated a process to import 0.5 million tonnes of rice while another 0.5 million tonnes of cereals are expected to be available as food aid from foreign development partners.
The import of 0.5 million tonnes of rice will cost around Tk 15 billion as the rice price has already increased to Tk 3.0 billion per 100,000 tonnes from Tk 2.8 billion previously.
Besides, about 1.0 million tonnes of rice have already been imported by the private sector while the government imported 0.2 million tonnes during the last five months of the current fiscal.
The press briefing was told that the total loss of 'Aman' crop due to floods and recent cyclone, 'Sidr', has been projected at 1.4 million tonnes, out of which the cyclone alone damaged 0.8 million tonnes in an area of 818,638 hectares of land in the coastal districts.
The net availability of local rice has been projected at 27.1 million tonnes in the current fiscal, which is 0.3 million tonnes less than that of last fiscal, the adviser said.
He further said the country imported 2.4 million tonnes of rice in the fiscal year 2006-07 in addition to the net availability of 27.4 million tonnes of rice at the local level.
Meanwhile, the government will soon launch an agri-rehabilitation programme for the Sidr affected districts to help the affected farmers recoup the losses, CS Karim said.
"We will sit with the NGOs and other lending agencies shortly to devise a strategy for the rehabilitation of affected farmers in both the flood and Sidr-hit areas," he said.
The government has already decided to facilitate plantation of hybrid rice in 1.0 million hectares of land in the upcoming 'Boro' season against 0.2 million hectares in last year, aiming to help boost the local rice output.