There will be no food shortage in the country till the coming Ramadan as the government has undertaken initiatives to ensure food safety, according to a source in the cabinet division.
Under the leadership of the Agriculture Secretary, top officials of the government have been coordinating on food safety for the past six months. After end of this Boro season, there will be food surplus till May and there will be no food shortage in the country till the coming Ramadan. Apart from the current food stock, the yield of Aman has also increased this year.
A World Food Programme (WFP) analysis said that, due to the outbreak of pandemic, the world will face a devastating scarcity of food grains, which may take the lives of three crore people.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, the current government is giving 50 percent to 70 percent subsidy for mechanization of agriculture. Now the farmer has to pay Tk 10 lakh to 14 lakh depending on the location to buy a combine harvester. Even with the subsidy, many farmers cannot afford to buy harvesters. The government has urged banks and financial institutions to come forward.
Agriculture Minister Dr Abdur Razzque said that proper agricultural credit management is very important to increase food production and fully utilise the potential of agriculture. The officials of the bank and the agriculture department have been directed to sit together and coordinate to solve the problem of disbursement of agricultural credit at the field level.
Meanwhile, even after production of satisfactory quantity of rice, the government has decided to import rice to avoid any risk. This has already been started. It is learnt that 1121910 tonnes of parboiled rice, 55208 tonnes of Atap rice and 268248 tonnes of paddy have been procured in order to give incentives to the farmers and 3 lakh tonnes of rice and 5 lakh tonnes of paddy have been procured in the current Aman season.
Meanwhile, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry has adopted 17 plans to achieve food security in the country. These plans are reduction in cost of production of crops, increase in food production, increase in arable land, development of natural disaster resistant varieties, development of technologies suitable for climate change, intercropping, mixed cropping, relay crops, cultivation of ratoon crops, and increase in irrigated land, cultivation of hybrid and hybrid crops, diversification of crops, rapid and abundant seedling production through biotechnology, control of diseases, cultivating every inch of land, fish farming in paddy fields, integrated fish-chicken-duck farming in ponds, use of modern technology to control diseases and pests, providing loans on easy terms, ensuring biosecurity for livestock, increasing subsidies, increasing storage, supply of agricultural inputs, introduction of crop insurance and fall Fish farming in reservoirs etc.
