The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) has assured of strengthening its cooperation and activities in increasing rice production and productivity in Bangladesh as it has adopted a five-year work plan to this end.
The assurance was made when an IRRI delegation called on Agriculture Minister Md Abdus Shahid at his secretariat office in Dhaka on Monday (January 22, 2024), reports BSS.
IRRI's Asia Regional Director Jongsoo Shin, IRRI Bangladesh Representative Dr Humnath Bhandari, Executive Director Mohammed Shaheen Bhuiya, and Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) Director General Shahjahan Kabir were present.
Noting that unless food security is ensured, a country faces various problems, the agriculture minister said Bangladesh has no food deficiency now.
But the population is increasing while Bangladesh has to host Rohingya people, he said, adding because of these reasons, food production should be increased to ensure food security in the days to come.
Mentioning that the government's target is to enhance production, Abdus Shahid said if production can be increased, problems like hoarding and the creation of artificial crises will not exist.
The IRRI delegation said they are prioritizing the production of high-yielding, short-term, and quality rice varieties.
Innovation of climate tolerant and nutritious rice varieties is getting importance to this end, they said.
Note here, data released by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) on the production of dry season crop Boro this week showed that the country bagged 2.07 crore tonnes of the staple grain during the Boro season in FY23, up 3 percent from the previous fiscal year.
Total rice production grew 2.5 percent year-on-year to 3.91 crore tonnes, the highest on record, in FY23.
"We have seen the introduction and cultivation of new varieties of modern seeds with higher yields. Farmers are managing fields better. Besides, the use of fertilizer has become balanced after the government introduced a subsidy for non-urea fertilizer," said Jiban Krishna Biswas, former director general of Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI).
Seven years ago, Bangladesh's total production of rice was 3.38 crore tonnes.
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