BM Desk:

Agriculture Minister Abdur Razzak has said  that as agricultural land is decreasing in the country, so the government is emphasizing producing more crops in less time and repeatedly growing crops on the same land to ease the supply of food to the people. He said that the country’s scientists have developed short-lived, improved varieties of rice and other crops in which it is possible to grow additional crops in a year, and the yield is also very high. These varieties should be quickly popularized among farmers.

The minister’s remarks came from  workshop on the topic of increasing the production of oil crops and paddy in the Greater Faridpur and Jessore regions at the Sadar Upazila Parishad Auditorium in Faridpur on Thursday. The Bangladesh Atomic Agriculture Research Institute (BINA) and the Directorate of Agricultural Extension organized the event.

Razzak said, “In the first year of implementation of the three-year action plan to reduce the import dependence of edible oil in the country, an additional mustard production of Tk 3000 crore has been produced. Even without reducing rice production, we will be able to reduce oil imports by half through local production within the next financial year (2024–25).

“Scientists have developed high-yielding and short-lived varieties of rice and mustard to produce 40% of the country’s edible oil needs. In this way, short-lived rice cultivation in Aman can be followed by short-lived mustard cultivation and then short-lived Boro rice cultivation. Mustard is an additional crop.”

The minister said that some domestic model houses have been built for experimental storage of onions where onions are in good condition for 4-5 months. This conservation model house will be constructed across the country this year. High-yielding varieties of onions have also been given in the field; incentives are being given for summer onion cultivation; and if the model can be stored at home, it will not be dependent on foreign countries for onions but can be exported abroad.

The Ministry is conducting workshops on new crops in different agricultural regions of the country. Local agricultural officials, public representatives, farmers, media representatives, and many others are present. This workshop aims to increase the income of farmers by increasing crop intensity by converting one crop land to two crops and two crop land to three or four crops.

BARC Executive Chairman Sheikh Bakhtiar, BADC Chairman Abdullah Sajjad, Agriculture Extension Directorate Director General Badal Chandra Biswas, Atomic Agriculture Research Institute Director General Mirza Mofazzal Islam, District Awami League President, and General Secretary spoke at the event, chaired by Agriculture Secretary Wahida Akhtar.