Bangladesh witnesses increased production of three major food grains by 13% in the past six years with rice yield showing a growth of 8.59 percent to strengthen further the food security, according to latest official statistics."If you analyze the figures in the past six years since 2009-2010, rice production grew by 8.59 percent, wheat by 43.96 percent and maize by 87.73 percent," an agriculture ministry spokesman said.
The figures showed that rice production rose to 350 lakh tonnes from 322.57 lakh tonnes, wheat to nearly 14 lakh tonnes from 9.69 lakh tonnes and maize yield jumped to over 25 lakh tonnes while the volume was only 13.70 lakh tonnes six years ago.Being the sample food of the country rice, however, covered a larger area of cultivation while maize, still being produced to feed the poultry firms and livestock sector, seasonally occupy a smaller area of land.Officials and experts preferred to tally the volume of grain production with vegetable yield and non-crop sectors like fisheries and livestock to analyze the extent of self sufficiency in food production.Former member director of Bangladesh Agriculture Research Council (BARC) and director general of Bangladesh Livestock Research Institute (BLRI) Dr Jahangir Alam said non-crop sector like fisheries and livestock also grew by five per cent particularly in 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12."If the growth rate is sustained we will be self-sufficient in thevegetable production in the next 10 years, while by now we nearly became self-sufficient in food grain production," he said.Department of Agricultural Extension`s (DAE) director general Hamidur Rahman said compared to the global average Bangladesh`s food grain production was higher largely due to "policy support, timely supply of agricultural inputs to farmers and their access to credit"."Innovation of new varieties of different crops and adoption of new technology contributed hugely to enhanced yield," the DAE chief said.