New seeds for food security
Friday, 21 March 2008
AGRICULTURE is too vital for the food security of the country and its macro-economic stability. Growing imports of food products have been possible due to the country's rising forex reserve. But if the imports continue to rise on a regular basis, it could, at one stage, strain the reserve as well as the macro-economic stability or the balance of payments. There is no alternative to increasing agricultural production for the country's macro-economic stability and food security. Bangladesh needs to steadily increase its local food production also because the prices of foodstuff are soaring in the international market and are projected to remain that way well into the future.
But the stage of agricultural productivity in this country is hardly satisfactory. As productivity does not match demand, dependence on food imports is growing. In recent times, the production shortfall is being met by imports of a large quantities of foodgrains.
In this situation, increasing the per hectare yield of foodgrains seems to be the only way for Bangladesh so that the supplies could match the demand. The existing average output of about three tonnes per hectare must be raised to five tonnes. This should be possible because of Bangladesh's soil fertility. Countries such as Japan and Korea, with less fertile land, are growing five to six tonnes per hectare. But, there seems to no signs of planned efforts in this line to meet the existing and future demand. The Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) has so far invented 47 new higher yielding varieties of rice. Only a handful of them have been popularised. At least a dozen other varieties, still with the BRRI, can give substantially higher outputs than the ones farmers now cultivate.
A number of high yielding varieties, developed by the BRRI to withstand drought and salinity, are yet unknown to farmers in the southern region. The greater part of the coastal belt can raise only one rice crop a year. But the area could grow several crops a year by introducing the new varieties -- developed to withstand adverse conditions -- to the farmers there. There must a department of the government to give hands-down training to the farmers throughout the country on the new varieties of rice. A department, like this, needs to maintain regular liaison with the BRRI to help motivate the farmers across the country through provision of support facilities for the field-level use and application of the new varieties of seeds for the purpose.
Md Obayadullah
Gulshan, Dhaka
But the stage of agricultural productivity in this country is hardly satisfactory. As productivity does not match demand, dependence on food imports is growing. In recent times, the production shortfall is being met by imports of a large quantities of foodgrains.
In this situation, increasing the per hectare yield of foodgrains seems to be the only way for Bangladesh so that the supplies could match the demand. The existing average output of about three tonnes per hectare must be raised to five tonnes. This should be possible because of Bangladesh's soil fertility. Countries such as Japan and Korea, with less fertile land, are growing five to six tonnes per hectare. But, there seems to no signs of planned efforts in this line to meet the existing and future demand. The Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) has so far invented 47 new higher yielding varieties of rice. Only a handful of them have been popularised. At least a dozen other varieties, still with the BRRI, can give substantially higher outputs than the ones farmers now cultivate.
A number of high yielding varieties, developed by the BRRI to withstand drought and salinity, are yet unknown to farmers in the southern region. The greater part of the coastal belt can raise only one rice crop a year. But the area could grow several crops a year by introducing the new varieties -- developed to withstand adverse conditions -- to the farmers there. There must a department of the government to give hands-down training to the farmers throughout the country on the new varieties of rice. A department, like this, needs to maintain regular liaison with the BRRI to help motivate the farmers across the country through provision of support facilities for the field-level use and application of the new varieties of seeds for the purpose.
Md Obayadullah
Gulshan, Dhaka