The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

The loss in rice production caused by the floods and the devastating cyclone Sidr this year in Bangladesh was estimated at Tk 26,000 crore (about US 3.7 billion dollars), said CPD and BRAC at a joint press briefing in Dhaka on Monday.

This was disclosed in a joint survey report titled "Post-Sidr Agriculture Rehabilitation" conducted by the Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD) and BRAC.

The loss of rice is estimated at 1.1 million tons and as per the market price its value is roughly about Tk 26,000 crore (about US 3.7 billion dollars), the report said.

Disclosing this, Mahbub Hossain, Senior Research Fellow of the CPD, said a comprehensive agriculture rehabilitation program was essential to make up the loss in the agri-production. He noted that by taking proper steps, challenges of the food security which emerged due to the cyclone Sidr could be addressed.

"An agriculture rehabilitation program needs to be initiated immediately to generate employment and increase food production, to minimise the effect on rising food prices and household level food insecurity," he said. The report recommended that to make an agricultural rehabilitation program successful in the area, a package program should be planned, rather than only supply of seeds and fertilizers.

"The package should include supply of seed, tillage equipment, low lift pump for irrigation, supply of fertilizer, and agricultural loans for purchased inputs," said the report.

"Irrigation facilities are almost absent, and there is inadequate supply of tilling equipment. Timely tillage has become a critical constraint in view of huge loss of livestock," it said.

Two successive floods hit the country from late July to September, inundating more than 46 out of the 64 districts and killing over 1000 people.

The deadly cyclone Sidr battered the country's southern and southwestern coastal areas on November 15 night, killing over 3,200 people.