Bangladesh ranks third in the world on the global index for rice cultivation, agriculture minister Dr Abdur Razzaque has said.

He gave the information on Thursday morning (2 November) in a written reply to a question from M. Abdul Latif in the current session of parliament. Deputy speaker Shamsul Hoque Tuku presided over the session. The question-and-answer session for Thursday was tabled.

The agriculture minister said Bangladesh is currently third in the world rankings for rice cultivation. To sustain this success in rice production, the Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation (BADC) has been producing and distributing high-yielding, good-quality rice seed with various traits on behalf of the government.

Replying to a question from Awami League MP Didarul Alam, Abdur Razzaque said the government has allocated Tk 22,528.93 lakh for marginal and small farmers through various crops under the agricultural rehabilitation and incentive programme in the current 2023-24 fiscal year. The number of beneficiary farmers is 8,386,350.

He said that in the current 2023-24 production year there are plans to produce about 125,500 tonnes of improved seed of various varieties of rice, wheat, potato, maize, jute, pulses and oilseeds, vegetables and spices through BADC's contract growers across the country.

The minister added that because of the coronavirus outbreak and to mark the Mujib birth centenary, the irrigation charge for BADC's rental irrigation equipment was cut by 50 per cent to protect marginal and small farmers. This has continued from the 2020-21 fiscal year to date.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.