Implement govt plans to ensure progress in agri sector

The government has identified the challenges of agriculture sector and accordingly taken policy measures to face them, he said this while he was addressing a day-long seminar on "Position of traditional paddy in Bangladesh".

The seminar was organised at Sher-e-Bangla Agriculture University auditorium here to mark the "International Paddy Year-2004" declared by the United Nations.

Tap here to add The Daily Star as a trusted source

In his keynote paper, Chairman of the Department of Botanical Reproduction Dr Shahidur Rashid Bhuiyan said there were 4,000 varieties of paddy in Bangladesh, but most of them except Kalazira, Chinigura, Binni, Gandha and Kalijuri had already disappeared.

He said high yielding varieties of paddy introduced to harvest increased production had in fact driven out the traditional ones from the country. He, however, advised them for preserving the traditional varieties of paddy at the field-level, motivating the farmers to produce high-flavoured tasty rice and establishing the patent rights of traditional varieties of paddy.

MK Anwar stressed on crop diversification to produce more paddy from the limited arable lands. The gap between the per-hectare productions in the research institute and the field-level is very wide, he said and asked the researchers to find out the reasons behind it.

He said the government had already undertaken due measures to maintain steady supply of seeds of the high yielding varieties of paddy to the farmers. As much as 55 percent agri land has now come under irrigation facilities with a prospect of further increase in rice production in future, he added.

He said that his ministry was contemplating due steps to ensure fair prices of all agri-commodities for the farmers.