The farmers, despite producing bumper crops, were being deprived of fair prices due to the existing inadequate marketing system, Agriculture Minister Begum Matia Chowdhury said Thursday.
While talking about the recent price debacle in Boro harvesting season, the minister acknowledged that the government could impose duty on rice import at least a few weeks before to help avert the losses incurred by the farmers due to the influx of imported rice.
The minister also said the country's food production had been showing a very good trend for the last few decades.
"But poor market management has been depriving the farmers of profits," she said.
She made these comments while speaking at the launching ceremony of a book on "Feed the Future: Bangladesh in Focus", organised by the Forum for Information Dissemination on Agriculture (FIDA) in collaboration with Syngenta Bangladesh Ltd and Palok Publishers at the National Press Club in the city.
FIDA is an organisation of journalists and researchers who work on agriculture and food security.
The Agriculture Minister said imposition of 10 per cent duty on rice import changed the condition of rice market now.
She claimed that prices of paddy were now remaining nearly at the same level of last year.
The minister also expressed the hope that Bt Brinjal would be further promoted in the country.
Director General of seed wing under the agriculture ministry Anwar Faruque said following the introduction of genetically modified (GMO) Bt Brinjal, the government would begin GMO potato farming from next year.
He also said that the government had to do a lot of work regarding a farmer-friendly marketing chain.
The seed wing head said that the population of Bangladesh was increasing by 2.0 million annually, for which additional 0.45 million to 0.5 million foods would be needed.
He said farming had been expanding to new areas annually due to emergence of char lands.
He expressed his optimism that farmers in the country would remain capable of feeding the Bangladeshis until 2050 when the population would cross 220 million.
Twelve articles on agriculture and agri business, food security and safety, and water crisis have been published in the book edited by FIDA president Kaowsar Ahmed.
International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) Bangladesh Chief of Party Dr Akhtar Ahmed, Syngenta managing director Md Sazzadul Hasan, vice president of FIDA Ashraf Ali, among others, spoke on the occasion.
Secretary of FIDA Reaz Ahmad coordinated the programme.
tonmoy.wardad@gmail.com
Inadequate marketing deprives farmers of fair prices
FE Report | Published: May 29, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: May 28, 2015 22:47:45
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