There’s no risk of rice crisis in next year despite the low yield of Aush paddy in 2022-23 resulted from shortage of rain, said the organizations work for agriculture in the country.

According to them, the shortage of Aush yield has been recovered in Aman season. On the other hand, the goal of producing Boro paddy in 26,000 hectare of lands has been fixed. In addition, the production of Bri-28, Bri-29, Bri-89, Bri-92 and Bangabandhu-100 paddy has been increased significantly. If no natural disaster occurs, then the production of rice will exceed 4 crore metric tons, which would be greater than any time in the history of the country. As a result, the country will face no shortage of foods despite the global economic crisis.

According to the information of Department of Agricultural Extension, in the fiscal year 2015-16, a total of 113 lakh 88 thousand hectare lands were under rice cultivation. Due to building many infrastructures, the cultivable lands were reduced; however, in fiscal year 2021-22, rice cultivation was done in 118 lakh and 30 thousand hectare of land.

In the fiscal year 2021-22, 3 crore 91 lakh 80 thousand tons rice were produced, which was 3.31 tons per hectare. In the Aush season of current year, the quantity of rice production reduced by 2 lakh 44 thousand metric tons. However, in Aman season, rice has been produced in 59 lakh 23 hectare of land, which was 2 lakh 3,100 hectare greater than that of the previous year. Last year saw 2.62 metric tons of Aman paddy production per hectare. So, it’s expected that an increase of 5 lakh 32 thousand metric tons of Aman rice will take place this year. The total production of Aman rice is going to be 1 crore 55 lakh 18 thousand. The process of collecting the yield of Aman rice is going on at present.

On the other hand, the work of preparing seedbed is also going on. The department of agricultural extension has set goal for cultivating Boro rice in 49 lakh 78 hectare lands, which was 26,000 hectare greater than that of previous year. The production target was set to 2 crore 15 lakh 33 thousand metric tons. If the target is realized, the production of current year will be 4 crore 51 thousand tons, which is the highest production so far.

Informing that next year there will be no rice scarcity, department of agricultural extension director general Md Benzir Alam told The Bangladesh Pratidin, “The farmers in the country passed the tough condition of recent past and they’re producing huge quantity of rice despite the shortage of rain in Aman season. The loss over Aush yield has been recovered. Moreover, the yield of hybrid rice has been increased significantly. The Ukraine-Russia couldn’t affect the country’s agriculture badly. If no natural disaster occurs, we will see a new record in rice production.

Bangladesh Rice Institute director (Reasearch) Dr Md Khalequzzaman told The Bangladesh Pratidin, “The maximum production of Bri-28 and Bri-29 rice per hectare are 6 and 7 tons respectively, whereas if proper nurturing is ensured, the production of Bri-89, Bri-92 and Bangbabandhu-100 will be 9.7, 9.3 and 8.8 tons per hectare. The popularity of the species among the farmers in increasing and so we’re not worried about future production of rice.

@The report was published on print and online versions of Thwe Bangladesh Pragtidin on December 9, 2022 and rewritten in English by Lutful Hoque