Govt decides to bring Aman farming under irrigation

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FE Report
The government Monday took an unprecedented decision to bring 'Aman' farming under irrigation to reduce its vulnerability to drought and help boost the country's food-grain output.
"Since Aman cultivation is heavily dependent on seasonal rains, production of the country's second largest crop is often affected by drought or inadequate rains," Food and Disaster Management Minister Abdur Razzak told newsmen after a meeting of the Food Planning and Monitoring Committee (FPMC) at the secretariat.
"Taking the growing vulnerability of Aman crop to drought into consideration, the FPMC has decided in principle to switch over to irrigation system," he said.
Mr. Abdur Razzak also observed that farmers were not interested to produce Aman crop due to lack of rains, but the government would not allow it to remain dependent on the nature as the country needed to increase the production to ensure food security.
Finance Minister AMA Muhith, Agriculture Minister Motia Chowdhury, LGED and Cooperatives Minister Syed Ashraful Huq, Cabinet Secretary and secretaries of finance, food and disaster management and relief ministries were present at the meeting.
Among others, the FPMC meeting decided to procure 500,000 tonnes of wheat this season at the rate of Tk 19.50 per kilogram (kg), considering the production cost of farmers and purchasing power of consumers.
The production cost of wheat has been estimated at Tk18.29 per kg this year.
He said Bangladesh is on course to reach its production target of wheat of over 0.9 million tones this season.
Imports of wheat account for over 65 per cent of the country's total wheat requirement of 3.0 million tonnes.
The government, however, did not take any decision on fixing the purchase price of Boro paddy. "We will fix the prices in the third week of April after we estimate the production," said Mr Razzak.
The production cost of per kg rice has been estimated at Tk21.65 this year.
The minister said the country is also expected to harvest a bumper crop this season if favourable weather exists.
"The yield of rice and wheat this season will be much higher than that of last season after the government supplied diesel and fertiliser in time at a subsidised rate."
The food minister also said the government will continue make rice available at reduced prices through open market sales initiative in the city until the prices of the staple falls further at the local markets and arrival of new Boro rice.
Food, finance, agriculture and cabinet secretaries also attended the meeting.