The government plans for additional rice output each year gradually by bringing more lands under Boro and high yielding paddy cultivation to enrich the country with adequate food.
It will provide free hybrid seeds to farmers to increase production. The cultivable area will increase to 50,000 hectares of land to increase production.
Farmers have started preparing seedbeds for Boro, the main crop for ensuring food security. More than half of the country's total rice comes from Boro.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture and the Department of Agricultural Extension, about 50,000 hectares of land will be increased this Boro season compared to the previous Boro season to ensure food security.
Around 1.5 lakh farmers across the country will be provided seeds for free for cultivating one bigha of land. This is the first time such an initiative has been taken.
The Agriculture Minister also informed about the increase in planting during the Boro season at the meeting to review the progress of implementation of the latest Annual Development Project (ADP) held at the Ministry. He said the price of paddy is very high this year as the production of Aman is not good due to various reasons including floods. “Therefore, at any cost, we need to increase the production of Boro paddy in the coming season,” he added.
Farmers should be encouraged not to leave any cultivable land out of Boro cultivation. To increase the production and productivity of Boro, all the officials from the field to the ministry have to be active.
The Agriculture Minister said he would take all-out preparations for this and stay by the side of the farmers. He said the improved seeds of Boro paddy are being supplied to farmers and various agricultural inputs including fertilizer, irrigation, and the incentives are being given.
Director-General of the Department of Agricultural Extension, agriculturist Md Asadullah said, "We have already started working with the Boro. Our targets have been fixed. This year, planting will increase in about 50,000 hectares of land. We are focusing on hybrid varieties rather than Ufshi varieties because the yield is higher in hybrids. One hectare of hybrid yields 1 ton more than Ufshi.”
According to the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), Bangladesh is now the third-largest rice producer in the world. A total of 20.06 million tonnes of paddy production target has been set for the current Boro season. Last year's Boro production was 20.01 million tonnes.
For this 2020-2021 fiscal year for Boro cultivation, 484400 hectares of land has been allocated. Of the total, around 1104000 hectares of land will be used for hybrid paddy cultivation.
In the last Boro season, the target for cultivation was set at 48 lakh 66 thousand hectares of land, but 47 lakh 54 thousand 400 hectares of land was cultivated.
