Agriculture minister Abdur Razzaque on Tuesday said Boro harvesting in haor areas has already been completed while around 64 percent harvesting is completed in rest of the areas of the country.
He said this at a views exchange meeting with reporters on ‘Boro Paddy Production Situation and Contemporary Issues in Agriculture’ at his secretariat office in the capital adding that Boro paddy has been planted in 4,863,760 hectares of land across the country this year.
The minister said that it was a great pleasure and relief that 100 percent paddy has been harvested in the haor area. Boro has been planted in 946534 hectares of land in eight districts of the haor area this year. This is about 20 percent of the total cultivation of the country. And only in Haor area, 451770 hectares of land has been cultivated.
The minister said, “Smooth harvesting of paddy this year has become possible due to the speedy delivery of paddy harvesting machines and the timely movement of workers under government supervision”.
Only 33 percent of the country's paddy was harvested on the same date last year. This has been made possible by the smooth operation of rice harvesting machines and workers, he added.
He said, “About 50,000 workers (49,106) have been brought in seven districts of Haor from outside this year. In addition, 2,620 combine harvesters and 789 reapers are operating in the field this year”.
“Despite labour crisis, paddy is being harvested fast, on the other hand, farmers are getting benefitted from the reduction in production costs,” he continued adding, “In the region, 50 to 60 percent subsidy is being given to the farmers for cutting paddy and other agricultural implements. This is a rare example in the world.”
The minister said that, “The target is to produce 25 million metric tons of rice in the boro season this year. Last year the production was 19.6 million tons. If no natural calamity hits, it is expected that there will be no further impact on Boro paddy production. Production will be at least 1 million tons more than last year”.
The agriculture minister said boro paddy is very important for the food security of about 170 million people in the country. More than 55 percent of the total rice produced annually comes from this season. The amount (about 20 million tons) of boro produced annually has an international market value of Tk 75,000 crore.
Meanwhile, Senior Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture Md. Mesbahul Islam, Additional Secretary Kamala Ranjan Das, Additional Secretary Md. Hasanuzzaman Kallol, Additional Secretary Wahida Akter, Director General (Seeds) Balai Krishna Hazra, Chairman of BADC Dr. Amitabh Sarkar, Director General of Agriculture Extension Department Md. Asadullah, Director of Agricultural Information Service Kartik Chandra Chakraborty were present.
