The parliamentary standing committee on the ministry of agriculture (MoA) has made 16-point proposals to boost up the country's agriculture sector.
The move came following the visits of officials of the MoA parliamentary standing committee who observed the agricultural activities and developments in the Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand.
The proposals include: necessary steps have to be taken for doubling the country's paddy production through a "Long Term Strategic Plan" with the help of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), research activities have to be taken to invent zinc, iron and vitamin A-enriched rice maintaining the global standards and invent saline, drought and water-tolerant rice.
High yielding and high quality hybrid rice could be cultivated locally and, in this connection, the Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation (BADC) can boost relationship with the SL Agritech Corporation of the Philippines, the officials suggested.
They said for improving the country's irrigation system the government can follow the Vietnamese system.
They said the government should encourage the farmers to increase fruit production in hilly districts and also needs to cooperate for establishing local processing factories in the country.
They also recommended arranging higher education and training for the local agriculture scientists abroad particularly in the Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand.
Modern equipment, skilled manpower, farm equipment, a strong policy to manage government's land and a strict policy for stopping use of poisonous chemicals should be available, the officials said.
"We visited the Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand to see for ourselves their different agricultural projects. The MoA has started working on the standing committee recommendations. But the progress is very slow," a member of the MoA parliamentary standing committee told the FE.
"We want to increase the country's paddy production within the next five to eight years through a long-term strategic plan, following the success stories of other Asian countries," a source concerned said.
"There is no alternative to enhancing paddy production to improve country's food security. We are expecting that Bangladesh will be a rice exporting country in the near future," he said.
Rice production in the country was 33.76 million tonnes in the last fiscal year. The country has a demand for nearly 31.0 million tonnes of rice annually, according to the Directorate General of Food (DGoF).
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