Bangladesh will phase out its dependence on imported onion, green chilli and tomato by gradually increasing production, expanding storage and making greater use of technology, Agriculture, Fisheries and Livestock Minister Mohammad Amin Ur Rashid said. Depending on the product, this will take at most four years, he said.

He was speaking to journalists at the Ministry of Agriculture conference room on Tuesday, 18 August. Agriculture Secretary Md. Selim Khan was present.

• **Onion:** No onion has had to be imported so far this year. Onions used to rot for lack of storage, but technology now allows them to be kept for up to six months. Storage capacity for 300,000 tonnes will be built, and the minister hopes no imports will be needed in future.
• **Green chilli:** Chilli is imported in the monsoon because plants die in even a little standing water, causing shortages. The ministry is working on modern cultivation and improved varieties.
• **Tomato:** Tomatoes are not grown year-round, especially in the rainy season. A project has been launched and seed has arrived so that tomatoes can be grown in the monsoon; the aim is to end imports after two seasons.
• **Ginger:** About one-third is imported; imports should stop within two to three years as production and productivity rise.
• **Seed:** The country will become self-sufficient in jute seed and onion seed within three to four years.

The government's main goal, he said, is that no agricultural product should need to be imported in future.

Irrigation is a major cost for farmers, and the government plans to bring all irrigation pumps in the country under solar power. As a first step, preparations to run 60,000 to 62,000 pumps on solar power have been completed.

Farmer cards will be distributed to 350,000 to 400,000 farmers a month, and a database of about 1.4 million farmers has been prepared at the pilot stage. Over the past six months, more than 2.418 million saplings were planted against a target of 2.5 million, and 475.61 km of canals were excavated against a target of 478.9 km.

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