ZCZC
BSS-28
CROP-PRODUCTION-TARGET
Govt sets rice production target at 3.64cr MT
DHAKA, Sept 26, 2018 (BSS) – The government has set the rice production target at 3.64 crore metric ton (MT) for the current fiscal year (2018-19) with an emphasis on high yielding variety (HYV).
The target has been set to produce 2.98 crore tonne of high yielding variety in the current year against last year’s production of nearly 3 crore tonne, officials said.
They said the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) already has sent the proposed crop production target to the Agriculture Ministry for final approval.
As per the target, 27 lakh tonnes of Aus rice will be produced in FY19, while 1.41 crore tonnes of Aman and 1.96 crore tonnes of Boro.
Of the total targeted rice output, 46.64 lakh tonne is hybrid, almost 2.98 crore tonne high-yielding variety and the rest 16 lakh tonne local variety rice.
Director General (DG) of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) Mohammad Mohsin told BSS that they are confident to achieve the food production target if there is no natural disaster in the country.
Citing an example of Aus and Aman production, the DAE chief said, “We had set a target to produce aus on 11.25 lakh hectares of land across the country but we produced rice on 11,52,225 hectares.”
For Aman production, the DAE had set the land target of 53.18 lakh hectares, but the achievement was 104 per cent, the DAE official added. As price of rice is comparatively more than the other agricultural products, “we had no problem in fulfilling the target,” he noted.
In addition to this, the DAE has also set a production target of nearly 13 lakh tonne wheat on 3.90 lakh hectares of land this year. The wheat production in 2017-18 was 11.53 lakh tonne from 3.52 lakh hectares of land.
The DAE has set the target to produce 41 lakh tonnes of maize on 4.74 lakh hectares of land this year while the maize production was 38.92 lakh tonne last year from 4.47 lakh hectares of land.
Besides, the government has fixed a target to produce 1.08 crore tonnes of potato in the current fiscal year while it was 1.3 crore tonne last year.
BSS/SPL/OG/BR/1753