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As Bangladeshi farmers gradually shifted their focus to producing other high-value crops such as maize, potatoes and others, wheat cultivation has fallen to a historic low in the 2024-25 fiscal year, and production has fallen to its lowest in five years.
According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), farmers harvested 10.41 million tonnes of wheat from 208,000 hectares of land last winter. This is the second consecutive year that wheat cultivation has declined. In the 1998-99 fiscal year, wheat was cultivated on 880,000 hectares of land—the highest ever.
Since then, the area under wheat cultivation has been steadily decreasing as farmers have shifted their focus to producing more profitable crops. The question is, will wheat ever be cultivated on a larger scale?
Agriculturists say there are multiple reasons behind farmers' declining interest in wheat production - lower profits compared to winter maize, potatoes, and other high-value vegetables, lack of improved varieties, the outbreak of wheat blast disease in 2016, the shortening of the winter season, etc.
Muhammad Rezaul Kabir, senior scientific officer of the Bangladesh Wheat and Maize Research Institute (BWMRI), told The Daily Star, "Maize has almost become a cash crop. Lands where wheat was cultivated earlier are now being cultivated with maize."
Agriculturists say that maize yields more than wheat and is more profitable. Farmers get 11-12 tonnes of maize per hectare, which is almost three times that of wheat. Besides, farmers also get good prices for maize due to the demand for poultry, fish, and livestock feed.
Rezaul said, 'Wheat is now being cultivated in some areas due to the suitability of the crop cycle and weather.' In the Grain and Feed Update published at the end of March, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) said that climate change is having a negative impact on wheat production.
It said, 'The winter season is getting shorter in Bangladesh and the temperature remains relatively high during winter.'
Professor AKM Aminul Islam of the Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding at Gazipur Agricultural University said, 'The winter season is getting shorter due to climate change.
Farmers usually plant wheat in December. Then, during flowering, the temperature increases, and the yield decreases. Due to this, farmers cannot make any profit.'
According to BBS data, the average annual wheat production in Bangladesh in the last 17 years has been 1.1 million tons.
The USDA report said that wheat blast disease significantly reduces the yield of this crop and this is one of the reasons for the decline in production.
BWMRI scientists said that the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) has developed the blast-resistant variety Bari Wheat-33.
Noting that this variety of wheat is currently cultivated in more than one-third of the total cultivated area of wheat, Rezaul Kabir said, "It is a blast-resistant variety. That is why farmers prefer it. Bari Wheat-32 variety is also being cultivated widely."
Abdul Hakim, Director (Finance and Administration) of BWMRI, said that the yield potential of the modern variety BWMRI Wheat-5 is high. In addition, we have started working on the development of hybrid wheat seeds with the help of the University of Sydney. We are trying to develop improved varieties with higher yields.
One of the main problems is the uncertainty of prices and the risk of loss to farmers due to the low price of imported wheat.
Bangladesh requires about 7.5 million tons of wheat every year for household and industrial use and most of this is met through imports.
Hakim also said that when local farmers harvest wheat, there is a lot of wheat available in the international market. Due to this, imported wheat puts pressure on the price of local wheat. This is one of the reasons why farmers are leaning towards maize cultivation.'
Any possibility?
Hakim believes that there is definitely potential in wheat cultivation. Recently, diseases have been seen in maize. Moreover, there are allegations that micronutrients or small nutrients in the soil are decreasing due to maize cultivation.
This former chief scientific officer of BWMRI said that wheat cultivation is increasing due to water shortage in Rajshahi, Chapainawabganj, and Naogaon districts.
BWMRI has developed a salinity-tolerant variety (BWMRI Wheat-4), which has a yield potential of 5.5 tons per hectare.
He said, 'Thousands of hectares of land remain after harvesting Aman in the southern regions. So wheat cultivation can be increased there.'
'We are working on delivering seeds there. If 2 lakh hectares of land in the southern region can be brought under wheat, the total production will increase. In this way, production will reach 2 million tonnes,' added Hakim.
Source: Online/GFMM
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