Govt for local production to meet 40% demand

Bangladesh will produce 10 lakh tonnes of edible oil in the next three years which will reduce the cost of importing the essential commodity up to Tk 10,000 crore, Agriculture Minister Abdur Razzaque said.

He made this remark while meeting ministry officials and journalists over the plan taken for reducing import dependency by increasing local production of edible oil seeds at the ministry on Tuesday.

“We have to meet 90 per cent of local demand through import. There is a shortage of edible oil this year. We are importing it. Consumers are in a painful situation. On the other hand, we are losing foreign currency which is creating pressure on our forex reserve. To reduce the import dependency, we have taken a three-year plan guided by the prime minister,” said the minister.

According to the plan, edible oil seeds cultivation including Mustard, nut, sesame, and sunflower will reach 23.60 lakh hectares by the fiscal year 2024-25 from the current cultivation on 8.60 lakh hectares of land. It would raise oil seed production to 29 lakh tonnes which is 12 lakh tonnes now. And oil production will reach 10 lakh tonnes which is 3 lakh tonnes now.

According to the plan, oil seed production will be increased without hampering rice cultivation.

The government has another plan to double the rice production by 2050 while the shortage of cultivable land remains a major challenge.

“Farmers are not interested in oil seed cultivation for lesser profit compared to other crops including rice.

On the other hand, we do not want to reduce rice production. If we can go according to our newly adopted oil seed production plan, we will achieve our target to meet 40 per cent of demand without hampering rice production.

He mentioned a plan was also taken to increase the onion production which is a successful one, now Bangladesh is nearly self-dependent in onion production.

The country has a demand for 24 lakh tonnes of edible oil. In FY2020-21, oil worth Tk 16,000 crore was imported but in the first 10 months of the current fiscal year, the country imported oil worth Tk20,000 crore.

As per the plan, three high yielding oil seed varieties will be disseminated across the country first. Secondly, char areas, coastal, haor and hilly areas which not under cultivation will come under oil seed cultivation. Moreover, 5 lakh hectares will also come under oilseed cultivation between Aman and Boro rice seasons by reducing the lifespan of rice varieties, Abdur Razzaque said.