There will be no food crisis if boro is harvested properly: minister

There will be no risk with food in the country, even in the coronavirus pandemic, if Boro paddy can be brought home successfully all over the country, Agriculture Minister Md Abdur Razzak said today.

"The highest amount of paddy is produced in Boro season. If the Boro paddy can be harvested across the country, including haor areas, successfully, there will be no much risk of food in the country," he said.

The minister was speaking at a virtual event while inaugurating paddy harvest programme at Astana village in Sunamganj South upazila.

"It is important to harvest paddy in across the country including the haor areas. We have inaugurated the paddy harvesting through a ceremony, so that an awareness can be raised among the people," he said.

Razzak said a target was set for cultivating paddy in 48 lakh hectares of land this year.

Crossing the target, the paddy was cultivated in 48.83 lakh hectors of land across the country this year, he said.

"If one tonne of paddy is produced per hectare, the paddy production will be increased by at least three lakh tonnes this year."

He added that the price of paddy was a bit higher due to floods last season.

"That's why at the beginning of the year we adopted a plan to increase production at any cost. In order to increase the planting and production of Boro paddy, we have incentivised various agricultural inputs including free seeds among the farmers this year," Razzak said.

Incentives of around Tk 73 crore have been given to increase the cultivation of hybrid varieties of paddy alone, which encouraged the farmers, he added.

According to the food ministry, a target was set for producing 2.5 crore tonnes of Boro paddy this year.