Surplus vegetable cultivation worries government

The government estimated a huge surplus in vegetable production in coming years resulting in taking up more land where other essential crops are cultivated.

According to an assessment carried out jointly by Bangladesh Agriculture Research Council (BARC) and the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE), the country will need 132.60 lakh tonnes of vegetable in FY2025.

However, the country will produce 203.31 lakh tonnes of vegetables the same fiscal year. A total of 50.83 lakh tonnes is likely to perish.

The surplus will reach 19.88 lakh tonnes in the FY25 which is 37.42 per cent higher than the surplus in the FY20.

In five years (from FY20-FY25) vegetable production will increase by 5.41 lakh tonnes. But vegetable export from Bangladesh has come down by 15 per cent in the last FY22.

Despite the adverse impact of Covid-19, the country exported vegetable worth $118.7 million in FY21, according to the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB).

Export dropped to $99.9 million in the FY22. Experts say meeting the demand for balanced food for increasing population is the main challenge where land is most important.

They also suggested turning vegetable land into the land for oil seed and pulse cultivation as these two cooking ingredients have a huge deficiency in the country.

They also emphasized proper crops zoning first before making any plan.

However, some others suggested giving importance to compliance to boost export and food processing to add value.

In 2020, the country produced 184.46 lakh tonnes of vegetable against the demand for 123.88 lakh tonnes while wastage was 46.11 lakh tonnes.

In the last fiscal year, the country produced 198.55 lakh tonnes of vegetables, according to the estimation made by government agencies.

What is the solution?

Experts and the sector insiders have differences of opinions on the issue.

“Now we have surplus vegetable. The vegetable-cultivated land can be converted into oil seeds and pulse cultivable land which will work in two ways. This move will reduce both surplus production of vegetable and deficiency of edible oil and pulse,” Anwer Faruk, former secretary of the ministry of agriculture, told The Business Post.

“It would be a wise decision as we have a huge shortage of edible oil and pulse. And we are largely import-dependent for these two cooking ingredients,” he said.

Farmers by themselves will not switch to other crops leaving vegetable as it is profitable to cultivate vegetable. 

Not only granting loan at a minimum interest rate to farmers the government has to ensure that they don’t count any loss. If there is a loss the government must pay.

If it is done, the farmers will be interested to switch to other crops leaving vegetable cultivation behind, he added.

According to the DAE, vegetable was produced on 13. 07 lakh hectares of land in FY22 while oil seeds and pulse on 8.61 lakh and 6.80 lakh hectares in the FY22

Hamidur Rahman, former director general of The Department of Agriculture (DAE), on the other hand has stressed a proper crop zoning, food processing, modern marketing system and scientific development to shift to other crops to reduce the surplus.

The country has around 1.5 crore farmers and they themselves make their choices. Now the main challenge is to produce balanced food for increasing population, Hamidur Rahman, also the member of expert panel of Annual Performance Agreement of the Ministry of Agriculture, said.

“We do not have a comprehensive crop zoning. Demand for vegetable and the amount we are producing are not assessed in case of vegetable.”

Export is hampered due to lack of compliance. Vegetable exporters association and government need to work together, he said.

We need to develop Aman rice varieties of short life span so that oil seed can be cultivated in between Aman and Boro cultivation.

Scientist developed some Aman varieties and high yielding and saline tolerant oil seeds which are performing well in the field, he said.

Deficiency in pulse and oil seeds production

According to the data provided by the National Board of Revenue (NBR) and the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), the country imported 17.96 lakh tonnes of crude and refined oil against the local production of 12 lakh tonnes of soil seeds in the FY2020-21.

Import of pulses was 13.60 lakh tonnes in volume during the same fiscal year against 9.31 lakh tonnes of local production.

In both cases, the import volume surpassed local production.

The government has adopted a roadmap or three-year plan to produce 10 lakh tonnes of edible oil locally by FY 2024-25 which could meet 40 per cent of Bangladesh’s total demand.

Acreage of mustard, ground nut, sunflower, sesame, soya seed, and other oil seeds will be increased to 23.60 lakh hectares of land by FY25 from 13.07 lakh tonnes in the FY22, according to the plan.

Production of oil seed crops will be increased to 29 lakh tonnes from 12 lakh tonnes now and edible oil production will be increased to 10 lakh tonnes from 3 lakh tonnes.

“Oil seed production is our main challenge and target at the moment. We have plans to execute it,” Habibur Rahaman Chowdhury, Director (Routine Charge), Field Service Wing of DAE, told The Business Post.