BD grains production triples since 1970s

[ghazi52]

BD grains production triples since 1970s

Wednesday, February 24, 2010
DHAKA: Food grains production has tripled to more than 30 million tonnes a year since the 1970s while the population almost doubled to 150 million over the same period, a government document said on Tuesday.

The country produced 32.2 million tonnes of food grains in the year to June 2009 and expects 35.3 million tonnes in the current fiscal year (to June 2010), it said.

“We want to accelerate the growth of the economy through agriculture and want to achieve self sufficiency in food by 2012,” Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith said.

The government had expanded irrigated areas, subsidies for agriculture, production and distribution of high-yielding variety seeds and increased flow of credit for farmers, Muhith said in a discussion on the document by state-run think tank Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS).

Ensuring higher production of boro rice would be critical to achieving food stability in the domestic rice market and food security in the country, the BIDS report said.

The government has set 19 million tonnes of boro output target this season, aiming to give a further boost to the country’s overall food grain production, a senior official said.

“Boro accounts for nearly 55 per cent of the country’s total rice output while most of the rest comes from the Aman crop,” said Mustafa K Mujeri, BIDS director general. Total import of food grains was 3.01 million tonnes in the last fiscal year which may rise to 3.7 million tonnes in the current fiscal year, the document said.

BD grains production triples since 1970s

Excellent progress. well done.

 

[Al-zakir]

Yes! We are doing OK in bd and Alumdullah we produce enough food to go around. Pakistan can take some tips from our farmers and scientist to increse food production.

 

[ramu]

Well done Bangladesh ...

Food security is the first:
Energy security is the next

 

[Taha Samad]

the issue with pakistan is management.last year our yield was greater than our consumption but stupid gov first exported the wheat creating a shortage and then imported wheat from aus.same thing happend in musharraf era.

secondly a lot of wheat is smuggled to afghanistan hence creating a shortage.

i think on-going water projects will also improve the situation in future.

 

[Stumper]

Pakistan can take some tips from our farmers and scientist to increse food production.

You mentioned scientist ..... can you elaborate a bit here. what kind of scientific innovations have been deployed in BD for agri?

More than Pak.... its us that face a major threat with the imbalance between Agri and Industries.

 

[leonblack08]

You mentioned scientist ..... can you elaborate a bit here. what kind of scientific innovations have been deployed in BD for agri?

More than Pak.... its us that face a major threat with the imbalance between Agri and Industries.

Many researches done in BRRI have resulted in high yielding crop variants.

BRRI's Achievements:

BRRI has so far developed 31 modern rice varieties for cultivation in different rice growing seasons. BRRI varieties are grown both under rainfed and irrigated condition. BRRI varieties cover 52 percent of the rice area and 70 percent of the total rice production in Bangladesh. Popular BRRI varieties are BR 11, BR 3, BR 10, BR 4, BR 14, and BR 1. The area coverage (in thousand hectares) of these varieties are as follows: BR 11 (1635), BR 3 (73), BR 10 (69), BR 4(69), BR 14 (55) and BR 1 (50). Other popular modern rice varieties are Pajam and IR 8. Pajam and IR 8 covers an area of 958 and 108 thousands hectares, respectively. Pajam was developed in the mid 1960s by a collaborative effort of Pakistan, Japan and Malaysia while IR 8 is a variety developed by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in 1967. Two BRRI varieties (BR 22 and BR 23) are suitable for late plantation during the T.Aman Season. Therefore, they can be used as a flood mitigating technology. These two varities has also prospect for cultivation in the coasl areas of Bangladesh where CHINGRI GHER (the fields under shrimp culture) are ready for rice cultivation at the end of August. As a measure of flood mitigation technology BRRI has also developed some agronomic management practices, for example, tiller spliting.

BRRI scientists also developed System Based National Fertilizer Recommentdation Guide and Management Technologies for Sulphur and Zinc Deficient areas. It may be mentioned here that at present 4.5 million hectares of area is deficient in Sulphur and 1.7 million hectares is deficient to Zinc.

BRRI has identified 175 insects and 31 diseases of rice prevailing in Bangladesh. Among these insects and diseases 20 are major insects while 10 are major diseases. As a measure of yield recovery from insects and diseases BRRI has been successful to incorporate varietal resistance, and chemical and cultural control practices which are environmental friendly.

Irrigation and water management is another vital aspect of agriculture in Bangladesh specially in the erra when water scarcity is every where. Irrigation and water management research at BRRI has successful in developing techniques which can act as the irrigation water saving technologies. Maintaing Shallow water depth and rotational irrigation practices can save about 30 percent of water without hampering yield. Appropriate compaction and sand-cement morter may reduce water losses by about 40 percent. Supplemental irrigation at the critical crop growth stages may increase yields upto 50 percent and can reduce the negative effect of drought in farmers field.

Performance of agricultural activities depends a lot to the equipments which the farmers use for crop cultivation. To satisfy the farmers need for agricultural equipments BRRI developed Hydro Tiller, Rice-Wheat Threasher and Harvester Prototype. These equipments are permitted to the private sector manufacturers for production under agreement with BRRI. BRRI always encourages public, private and non-governmental organizations to promote its technology for the benifit and welfare of rice producers and consumers of Bangladesh.

Improved cropping patterns suggested by BRRI provides an increase of yield by 25 to 95 pecent in raifed environment. On the other hand, yield in irrigated enviroment may be increased by 7 to 60 percent if farmers follw the BRRI developed cropping patterns. The potential for increase in income through the adoption of BRRI developed cropping patterns is 24 to 130 percent in rainfed environment and 90 to 64 percent in Irrigated environment.

Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI)

Besides recently more emphasis are being given on organic fertilizers and even organic pesticides.

Besides some farmers experimented and got fantastic results.Which were later passed on from region to region through officials.I have seen some documentaries in the award winning program "Hridoye Mati o manush",which promotes farmers.

 

[TopCat]

You mentioned scientist ..... can you elaborate a bit here. what kind of scientific innovations have been deployed in BD for agri?

More than Pak.... its us that face a major threat with the imbalance between Agri and Industries.

Our biggest achievement is the Boro cultivation which is cultivated in off season (winter season). Traditionally our lands were useless in dry season which now under irrigation and 55% of the production comes from that non traditional varieties of crops. The main advantage is that we dont have flood in winter.

 

[scholseys]

^^----marketing troll

 

[PlanetSoldier]

the issue with pakistan is management.last year our yield was greater than our consumption but stupid gov first exported the wheat creating a shortage and then imported wheat from aus.same thing happend in musharraf era.

secondly a lot of wheat is smuggled to afghanistan hence creating a shortage.

i think on-going water projects will also improve the situation in future.

There might be some under table deal .