Plentiful rice on the plate

[The Ronin]

Bangladesh now fourth largest food grains producer as rice yield breaks all records
ANISUR RAHMAN KHAN

Bangladesh’s farmers have been able to produce record amount of rice this year, harvesting around 3.63 crore metric tonnes of the staple food against the annual demand of 2.91 crore tonnes, Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) has said. “Bangladesh has produced a surplus rice of some 71.79 lakh metric tonnes this year to ensure the country is a food-sufficient country. Bangladesh couldn’t produce such a huge amount of rice after its independence in 1972,” Dr Md Abdus Salam, additional director (extension and coordination) of the DAE’s field wing, told The Independent yesterday.

With this production, Bangladesh has become the fourth largest food-grain-producing country, he said, adding that it would be able to export rice to different rice-consuming countries after fulfilling the local demand. In 2014, Bangladesh exported around 25,000mt coarse rice to Sri Lanka. The stocks of food-grains in the country’s government warehouses now exceed 14.90 lakh metric tonnes.

According to the DAE officials, Bangladesh has produced some 3.63 crore metric tonnes of rice against the local demand of 2.91 crore metric tonnes for its 16.64 crore people. During the same period, it has also produced 11.53 lakh metric tonnes of wheat, 38.93 lakh tonnes of maize, 1.03 crore tonnes of potatoes, 10.31 lakh tonnes of lentils (‘dal’), 9.70 lakh tonnes of oilseeds and 1.60 lakh tonnes of vegetables. In 2016, the country could produce only 2.62 lakh tonnes of food-grains locally.

According to the agriculture ministry and DAE officials, the record amount of food-grains could be produced becauseof the government’s initiative to grow three to four crops on each farmland instead of single crops. It has also taken steps to produce salinity-, drought- and drench-tolerant crops.

Regarding the success in producing such a huge amount of crops locally, Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury told this correspondent that the government has increased the limit of incentives, providing supports like supplies of fertilisers, seeds and fuels to the farmers for growing more crops.

In the past nine years—from the 2009¬–10 fiscal year to the 2017–18 FY, it has given support worth around Tk. 65,447 crore to the farmers as assistance. “More than 2.08 crore farmers have received such support under the government’s agriculture-friendly programmes. They have received the support through agriculture assistance cards. Thanks to such support, food-grain production is increasing in the country”, the minister added. Agronomist Dr Jahangir Alam, the vice-chancellor of the University of Global Village, said Bangladesh currently has an annual demand for 2.91 crore metric tonnes of rice for its 16.64 crore people.

As the country’s farmers are now producing more and more, the government should now turn its attention to growing nutritious food-grains to fulfill the people’s demands, he observed.

http://www.theindependentbd.com/pos...yI5F7YdZoxd0Mr7TUslTnJS_6M4wM2CWWCb3VIItuD4CI

 

[war&peace]

That's really good.

 

[bananarepublic]

I think there was a time when they used to grow rice in gilgit brown rice (unique to the area) later on with increase in population and Federal governments incompetence they stopped.

 

[bluesky]

I think there was a time when they used to grow rice in gilgit brown rice (unique to the area) later on with increase in population and Federal governments incompetence they stopped.

What may have happened to the Gilgit brown rice? Anyway, Basmati rice from Pakistan is very famous throughout the world including Japan. Pakistan earns billions of dollars by exporting Basmati.

 

[Homo Sapiens]

I want to ask a question, there is an almost universal impression is, Bangladesh is the most overpopulated country in the world, because population density here cross 1000 people/sq. km. But Bangladesh is largely feeding, housing, clothing of it's people from it's own soil. But there are many countries in the world where population density is very low, even less than 10 people/sq. km. But they are heavily dependent on foreign import for food. World's most sparsely populated countries, Mongolia, Namibia, Libya all these countries have population density just 2 or 3 people per sq. km. But all of them heavily dependent on foreign food import as agriculture is minuscule there due to desert environment . God forbid, if there is an international market disruption, these countries are going to be hit hard. But countries like these are considered underpopulated and commonly thought, they have plenty of room for additional people. So, my question is, which countries are really overpopulated? Bangladesh, despite very dense population, producing surplus food grain or those sparsely populated countries who can not produce enough food to sustain their existing population and dependent on other countries to feed their population?

 

[UKBengali]

I want to ask a question, there is an almost universal impression is, Bangladesh is the most overpopulated country in the world, because population density here cross 1000 people/sq. km. But Bangladesh is largely feeding, housing, clothing of it's people from it's own soil. But there are many countries in the world where population density is very low, even less than 10 people/sq. km. But they are heavily dependent on foreign import for food. World's most sparsely populated countries, Mongolia, Namibia, Libya all these countries have population density just 2 or 3 people per sq. km. But all of them heavily dependent on foreign food import as agriculture is minuscule there due to desert environment . God forbid, if there is an international market disruption, these countries are going to be hit hard. But countries like these are considered underpopulated and commonly thought, they have plenty of room for additional people. So, my question is, which countries are really overpopulated? Bangladesh, despite very dense population, producing surplus food grain or those sparsely populated countries who can not produce enough food to sustain their existing population and dependent on other countries for food?

BD should not export all the surplus grains but build up warehouse stocks sufficient to meet many months of normal consumption. Same for other essentials like oil etc.

 

[Nike]

I want to ask a question, there is an almost universal impression is, Bangladesh is the most overpopulated country in the world, because population density here cross 1000 people/sq. km. But Bangladesh is largely feeding, housing, clothing of it's people from it's own soil. But there are many countries in the world where population density is very low, even less than 10 people/sq. km. But they are heavily dependent on foreign import for food. World's most sparsely populated countries, Mongolia, Namibia, Libya all these countries have population density just 2 or 3 people per sq. km. But all of them heavily dependent on foreign food import as agriculture is minuscule there due to desert environment . God forbid, if there is an international market disruption, these countries are going to be hit hard. But countries like these are considered underpopulated and commonly thought, they have plenty of room for additional people. So, my question is, which countries are really overpopulated? Bangladesh, despite very dense population, producing surplus food grain or those sparsely populated countries who can not produce enough food to sustain their existing population and dependent on other countries for food?

Your country had quite large arable lands and lies in two season climates, in which prolonged times for cultivating and raising corps. And your government had concern about agriculture and farming systems so they spend lots of effort to invest in agriculture sector. Though, country like Venezuela albeit blessed with large arable lands area and large irrigation system depends on imported goods and foods because of mismanagement and faulty government rules. So it all depends on many factors actually

 

[Homo Sapiens]

Your country had quite large arable lands and lies in two season climates, in which prolonged times for cultivating and raising corps. And your government had concern about agriculture and farming systems so they spend lots of effort to invest in agriculture sector. Though, country like Venezuela albeit blessed with large arable lands area and large irrigation system depends on imported goods and foods because of mismanagement and faulty government rules. So it all depends on many factors actually

Venezuela can not be an example. It's level of mismanagement is extreme and rare in the world. Despite having the largest oil reserve in the world, people there are eating rotten food and general population are loosing weight at alarming level. Such misery is not present even in Somalia, the next anarchic country.

Except Equatorial Africa, agricultural sector are fairly developed(medium to high) in other part of the world. So mismanagement is not an important factor there.

 

[bluesky]

Venezuela can not be an example. It's level of mismanagement is extreme and rare in the world. Despite having the largest oil reserve in the world, people there are eating rotten food and general population are loosing weight at alarming level.

Venezuela remains a socialist country whose govt interferes regularly with the prices of staple foods. The result is a vicious cycle.

- The peasants lose the incentive to produce food for selling to the wage-earning consumers through the market mechanism because their selling price is lower than the cost of production.

- Excess foods are (may be) smuggled out to those countries where the prices are high.

- Govt tries to control the situation by importing food with the oil money.

But, the result is less than the Socialist govt expects. The situation deteriorates with the outflow of Dollar Capital and industrial production suffers etc., etc. The vicious cycle starts and the people keep on suffering without employment and a shortage of food.

More or less a similar situation was created after 1972 by the Socialist Tajuddin Ahmed. About 400,000 people died in BD because of hunger, malnutrition, starvation, and diseases in 1974. This was the main reason that people of Bangladesh did not regret the killing of Mujib in 1975. Today's BAL govt has totally abandoned the old Socialist policy which the Mujib govt tried to implement and impose through his BAKSAL before he was killed.

 

[jian-10]

bleh Venezuela is not a socialist country, the vast majority of its economy is still in private hands. Venezuela is no different than a lot of Scandinavian countries with a strong welfare State, they nationalized the oil industry and put the wealth into helping the poor. The difference between the Scandinavian countries and Venezuela is that Venezuela dared to go against USA policy, and that is a big no no especially in the US' backyard. Like Cuba, Venezuela has been under constant attack by the USA, but unlike Cuba, Venezuela's economy was still in the private sector, so it was easier to destabilize. Venezuela was too reliant on oil prices, when oil prices was high everything was good, but once oil prices crashed, that's when things went downhill.

 

[bluesky]

BD should not export all the surplus grains but build up warehouse stocks sufficient to meet many months of normal consumption. Same for other essentials like oil etc.

Which country do you think will import rice from Bangladesh when it is not really producing any surplus. Even last year the GoB people went to Burma, India, Vietnam, and Indonesia to import rice. This year the production is up by a mere 6% and the rainy season is very near to cause havoc to the coming season.

By the way, which other country has a deficit in rice production except for Bangladesh? Someone will come up with the name of Venezuela, but I think it imports US rice which tastes much better than the BD rice varieties. Other countries are very poor to pay in the dollar.

 

[Homo Sapiens]

and the rainy season is very near to cause havoc to the coming season.

Winter is approaching and you are saying ''rainy season is very near to cause havoc to coming season''? Have you forget the climate pattern of Bangladesh? As far as I know, Mediterranean climate have rainy winter, but our climate is tropical monsoon. Most of the rain fall between June-October.

 

[mb444]

I want to ask a question, there is an almost universal impression is, Bangladesh is the most overpopulated country in the world, because population density here cross 1000 people/sq. km. But Bangladesh is largely feeding, housing, clothing of it's people from it's own soil. But there are many countries in the world where population density is very low, even less than 10 people/sq. km. But they are heavily dependent on foreign import for food. World's most sparsely populated countries, Mongolia, Namibia, Libya all these countries have population density just 2 or 3 people per sq. km. But all of them heavily dependent on foreign food import as agriculture is minuscule there due to desert environment . God forbid, if there is an international market disruption, these countries are going to be hit hard. But countries like these are considered underpopulated and commonly thought, they have plenty of room for additional people. So, my question is, which countries are really overpopulated? Bangladesh, despite very dense population, producing surplus food grain or those sparsely populated countries who can not produce enough food to sustain their existing population and dependent on other countries to feed their population?

It is a circular state of affairs.... BD is singularly the most fertile land in the world, hence it can support a large population. It has a large population because it is the most fertile place in the planet. A large population allows higher degree of economic activity thus is able to absorb external shocks well and is less reliant on others. BD reliance on the wider world for food security is minimal because we have an extensive agri sector which in turn only exists because of the size of our population.

It is a happy/crazy mix of of our fertile land that has given rise to a fertile homogenious population.

 

[UKBengali]

It is a circular state of affairs.... BD is singularly the most fertile land in the world, hence it can support a large population. It has a large population because it is the most fertile place in the planet. A large population allows higher degree of economic activity thus is able to absorb external shocks well and is less reliant on others. BD reliance on the wider world for food security is minimal because we have an extensive agri sector which in turn only exists because of the size of our population.

It is a happy/crazy mix of of our fertile land that has given rise to a fertile homogenious population.

BD's large population(approach 200 million by 2030) may seem like a curse now but it can become a blessing as it will allow a large economy, which will allow a powerful military and hence in turn a foreign policy that is not subservient to any major powers.

 

[bluesky]

Winter is approaching and you are saying ''rainy season is very near to cause havoc to coming season''? Have you forget the climate pattern of Bangladesh? As far as I know, Mediterranean climate have rainy winter, but our climate is tropical monsoon. Most of the rain fall between June-October.

Oh, it was my bad. It is cool autumn in Japan and when I wrote the post the day was quite warm. My mind may have reversed that warm autumn day with a spring day to come a few months later.

But, anyway last year we saw how frantically the GoB was searching the world to buy food.
The production in 2017 was about 5.5% lower than it was in 2016. So, this year's production is equal to that of 2016.

However, this GoB every year speaks aloud that the country is self-sufficient in staple food, poultry, cattle-breeding, fish-farming, and so many others. Yet, people have to live a meager life. I am personally fed up with the shameless BAL propaganda machine that continuously makes TAL out of a TIL.