The New Nation - Internet Edition

THE country is going through an unprecedented shortage of locally produced foodgrains that has precariously increased its import dependence for the same. Not only this dependency, the drawdown of the country's forex reserve-considered as modest compared to even its neighbours-for food import, continues to be specially heavy as foodgrain prices have soared in international markets. There is also another very significant aspect of the growing food insecurity of Bangladesh. This is the clamping down of restriction of foodgrains export to Bangladesh by its neighbours which in the near past came up with new terms and conditions for the supply of foodgrains.

The aim of the government was to produce at least an additional 20 lakh tonnes of food grains during the Boro season to cope with the difficult food-related situation and it was blessed with a bumper harvest. However, it is noted that the programmes designed to boost rice production afterwards are not going so well as they should. For, while the supply of irrigation water and power appear to be reasonable, the same cannot be said about fertilisers.

For instance, a farmer may get one sack of fertiliser only from a dealer when he needs at least four sacks to manure his fields adequately. The supply of urea is not too poor. But the supply of two other fertilisers, TSP and SSP, are very poor. But optimum harvests cannot be expected from applying only urea. Besides, only the use of urea will also reduce soil fertility even in the medium term. Thus, scarcity of fertilisers and their too high prices, may threaten the expected higher yields of Aman crops. Very focussed attention and corrective actions are needed for an improvement in the situation.