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Integrated prog underway to increase oilseeds production


Published : 23 Jun 2021 09:37 PM | Updated : 24 Jun 2021 12:44 AM

The agri-friendly policy and various incentives of the present government have helped doubly increase the production of oilseeds in the country in the last 12 years 

However, most of the edible oil have to be imported from abroad and a lot of foreign exchange is spent on it. The main obstacle to oil production in the country is the scarcity of land. 

Agriculture Minister Md Abdur Razzque said this while speaking as the chief guest at the National Workshop on Virtual ‘Increasing Production of Oilseeds’ project from his secretariat office on Wednesday.

He said, “The country’s scientists have already developed high yielding and short-term improved varieties of rice and mustard. If the cultivation of these can be spread and popularized among the farmers quickly, it will be possible to increase the production of oil crops including mustard as an additional crop without reducing the increase in paddy production. To this end, the ministry is working on an integrated program.”

It may be mentioned that the production of oilseeds in 2009 was 660000 tonnes, in 2020 it increased to 11.54 lakh tonnes.

Senior secretary of the ministry Md. Mesbahul Islam said, “It is possible to increase the production by one tonne per hectare by cultivating improved varieties of paddy including BRRI dhan71, BRRI dhan81, BRRI dhan89, BRRI dhan92. If this can be done, there will be 10 percent land surplus so that other crops can be cultivated instead of paddy. Besides, it is also possible to increase the density of the crop by cultivating improved varieties of paddy and mustard.”

The Tk 278 crore ‘Increase in Production of Oilseeds’ project will be implemented in 250 upazilas in the period 2020-2025. Through this, the cultivation area of oil crops including mustard, sesame, sunflower, groundnut and soybean will be increased by 20 percent by including modern varieties of short-term oil crops tested by the agro-research institute in the conventional cropping pattern. 

In addition, with the expansion of modern technology of oil crops developed by BARI and Bina and the inclusion of bee-farming, the yield per hectare of oilseeds will also increase by 15 percent to 20 percent. As a result, production of oilseeds will increase and imports will decrease.