The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

Speakers at an inaugural ceremony of a week-long potato festival in the city yesterday said people should consume more potato with their daily meals as a supplementary to rice to encourage the farmers to grow more potato.

Agriculture Adviser Dr Chowdhury Sajjadul Karim and Chief of Army Staff Gen Moeen U Ahmed were present at the week-long festival as chief guest and special guest respectively. The Radisson Water Garden Hotel organised the potato festival from yesterday.

Army Chief General Moeen U Ahmed said potato could be the supplementary to rice in our daily life. "Potato is not an alternative to rice. It will be supplementary to rice for the next two months to consume the additional production of potato. Besides, the surplus potato will be destroyed," he said.

He advised people that they should take more potato at their breakfast to help the farmers.

Moeen U Ahmed informed that the farmers have produced 80 lakh tons of potato this year which was 50 lakh tons last year.

"This country is ours. If we will consume more potato, the farmers would be encouraged to produce more potato," he hoped.

Agriculture Adviser CS Karim said, "We will encourage our farmers to produce more potato next year, if we start consuming more potato as supplementary or main diet with rice."

"It is difficult to shift our eating habit to potato because the countryside people are still dependent on rice."

"We have committed to the farmers to help them. For this reason, we have provided Tk 250 crore for the first time as diesel subsidy to the farmers for Boro production from Pahela Baishakh," the Agriculture Adviser said, adding: "Our farmers have produced eight million tons of potato against the cold storage capacity of only 2.2 million tons in the country."

"We will change our farmers luck by taking more potatoes in our daily meals for next three months. Besides, the bumper production of potato will be destroyed due to shortage of cold storage. The farmers would face loss and be discouraged to grow more potato," he said.

He informed that the Government was trying to export 10,000 tons of potato to Singapore.

"We have been facing tremendous pressure due to climate change. If we had more money, we would not have bought foodgrains from any country. So, we have to help the farmers to produce more foodgrains," Dr Karim said.

The Agriculture Adviser said that the Government is encouraging the businessmen to establish potato-based industries to consume the additional production of potato in the country.

He further said the Government has fixed the price of rice at Tk 28 and paddy of Tk 18 per kilogram for procurement from the farmers directly.

"We fixed the price to express our gratitude to the farmers. The farmers will get benefit from the fixation of price of rice and paddy this year," he said, adding: "the farmers will get more profit than last year as rice was sold at Tk 18 last year.

Andre Alex Gomez, General Manager of Radisson Water Garden Hotel Dhaka addressed the programme, among others.

Later, Dr CS Karim and Gen Moeen U Ahmed formally inaugurated the weeklong potato festival where over 140 items of potato are on display till April 22 at Radisson Water Garden Hotel Dhaka.