Archive for the ‘Agriculture’ Category

Banana market size in city over Tk 10m a day this Ramadan

Courtesy: The Financial Express

August 29, 2009

Jasim Uddin Haroon

The city’s banana market size has reached around Tk 7.0 million at wholesale level a day during this holy month of Ramadan, senior banana traders told the FE.

The senior traders said this based on the trucks that arrived each day at the city’s seven wholesale markets.

They also said the market size at retail level during this Ramadan is over Tk 10 million a day in the city.

Md Abdul Kuddus Hawladar, proprietor of Ferojpur Farm at Waisghat in the city said: “Around 35 trucks loaded with bananas enter the city’s wholesale markets each day. Each truck is loaded with bananas worth Tk 200,000 on an average.”

However, the price of bananas remained a record high this time because of bad weather in northern districts especially in Dinajpur, the main growing district.

“We are selling a ‘paun’ (80 pieces) of quality bananas at Tk 400 at wholesale level, which is around 40 per cent up from last year,” Momtaz Mian of Sumi Traders at Tejgaon told the FE.

However, small-sized bananas are being sold at Tk 200 to Tk 220 each ‘paun’.

Last year, its prices dropped, thanks to a surge in the supply.

Currently, local as well as Nepali varieties of Sagar and Chamapa are available and the lion’s share of these bananas comes from Dinajpur and the others from Tangail.

But, traders said, consumption of bananas has not increased this Ramadan as expected due to rainy weather.

“This year demand for bananas has surged to around 15 per cent,” Md Aslam, a trader of ‘Allahar Dan’ at Jatrabari wholesale market, told the FE.

Bananas, mainly of Sagar variety, are now entering the city from greater Dinajpur.

Md Dipu Talukdar, a leading banana trader and proprietor of Masud Traders at Waisghat in the city, said many banana traders are incurring losses this year as frequent rainfall forced them to sell the same below purchase prices.

There are two ways of procuring banana, one is thorough ‘dadan’ or advance lending to the farmers by the traders and the other is the direct procurement from local market of banana growing areas.

Major wholesale markets the city are Waisghat, Buckland Bundh, Badamtoli, Jatrabari, Tejgaon, Mirpur and Natunbazar at Gulshan.

BR’s low-cost transportation can reduce vegetable price in Dhaka

Courtesy: The Financial Express           

RANGPUR, Sept 10 (BSS): Low-cost carrying of vegetables by intercity trains with two luggage vans in each from the northern districts to the capital since February, has been gradually becoming popular to arrest price spirals in the capital city in recent days.

Vegetable prices would mark drastic falls in Dhaka when the newly introduced 350 tonne capacity Parcel Express Train on the Parbotipur-Tejgaon route becomes popular through joint efforts and publicity of the concerned authorities and administrations.

Officials in Bangladesh Railway (BR), administrations, traders, businessmen, common people and local observers said this while talking to the national news agency Thursday as transportation costs would reduce.

According to the officials, the BR took special steps for carrying vegetables and other essentials by three intercity trains of Lalmoni Express, Ekota Express and Drutojan at lower costs from northern part of Bangladesh to the capital city from last February.

The steps were taken following instructions of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and Ministry of Communications to expedite smooth transportation of vegetables and keep their prices at reasonable level in the retail markets of Dhaka city.

After initial successes, one more luggage van was later attached to each of the three intercity trains running from Lalmonirhat and Dinajpur to Dhaka for further facilitating low-cost vegetables transportation during the month of Ramadan.

“We are getting good response from the vegetable traders as they are using the luggage vans of intercity trains and it might take some more time to popularize the Parcel Train”, director general (DG) of BR Mohammad Belayet Hossain told the news agency Thursday.

Joint Director General (JDG, Operations) of BR M Shahjahan said that massive steps have been taken to popularise carrying vegetables and other essential commodities by the traders at quicker time to Dhaka from the northern region using the Parcel Train.

The steps include round the clock announcement-using loudspeakers in and around all 14 stoppages in between Parbotipur and Bangabandhu Bridge involving BR officials to convincing the vegetable traders for using the Parcel Train for carrying their vegetables at low-cost.

The BR authorities at the national and local levels have been continuing massive publicity works like advertisements in the newspapers to attract the vegetable traders in availing of the golden opportunity.

Commercial Manager of the BR’s Western Zone M Akhteruzzaman told the news agency that adequate steps have already been taken to disseminate the information among the traders in the Western Zone to popularise the Parcel Express Train as soon as possible.

Divisional Commercial Manager of Western Zone of BR Ashok Kumar Dey, Lalmonirhat Divisional Railway Manager Kazi Rafikul Alam and Divisional Traffic Superintendent Syed Jahurul Islam and BR officials are exchanging views with all concerned everywhere for the purpose.

Meanwhile, vegetable traders Shamsul Haque of Lalmonirhat, Hafizar Rahman of Gazipur, Abdul Jabbar of Rangpur, Nasir Uddin of Joypurhat, Shamsul Alam of Naogaon and others said that the initiatives could be effective soon if the district administrations were properly involved.

“Our vegetables and essential commodities’ transportation costs using the Parcel Train would become less than half, no extortionist can realise tolls on the way and the goods will reach the capital intact and without any risks in shorter period,” the traders expressed their hope.

Assistant Station Master of Parbotipur Arif Hossain, Inspector Bayezid Ahmed of the Parcel Train, Santahar Station Master Chhoimuddin and his Parcel Assistant Anwarul Islam and Joypurhat Station Master Abdul Karim narrated brighter prospects of the Parcel Train from the next winter.

Food security: Some points to ponder
Courtesy:The Financial Express

27.11.2009

Emdadul Haque

More than 71 per cent of the capital city’s nearly one million rickshaw-pullers were farmers prior to their migration to the city and taking up this health-decaying profession. Eighteen per cent of them were in abject poverty as they were landless peasants, according to a study of the Social Science Research Council of the Planning Ministry, the ‘Livelihoods of the Rickshaw Pullers of Dhaka City’. Good Earth, a non-governmental research organisation, conducted the study under the supervision of the council.

The free encyclopedia Wikipedia defines food security as the availability of food and one’s access to it. A household is considered food secure when its members do not live in hunger or fear of starvation.

A recent study shows that 45 per cent people of Bangladesh live below poverty line. So, it is not unlikely that a large number of the poor cannot arrange required food round the year.

The poor fail to earn their livelihoods on a regular basis due to lack of job opportunities. That is why the landless villagers and floating city dwellers starve sometimes as they cannot procure food though it may not always be too costly.

The farmers did not get fair price of their paddies during the last Boro seaso. So, they are a little frustrated. This may be one of the reasons why the Aman acreage fell short of target by over 0.2 million hectares.

Moreover, the country experienced a drought-like-situation.Due to the dearth of rainfall, many farmers could not cultivate crop in time. Farmers in the 16 northern districts had no alternative but to go for a delayed plantation with the help of a special irrigation progarmme, launched in the Barind areas by the government. The delayed plantation of Aman may lead to significant losses to its per hectare yield.

However, agriculture experts hope that the revival of large-scale farming of the short-duration indigenous varieties of paddies during off-seasons can ensure food security.

The Rangpur-Dinajpur Rural Service (RDRS), an NGO, conducted an on-station research on 11 extinct indigenous varieties of paddies for three years. Based on the results of the research, the short-duration ‘pariza’ variety of paddy, per hectare yield of which is 3.5 tonnes, has been cultivated in greater Rangpur this year.

Pariza paddy can be harvested in 70 days during the completely off-season, between late May and mid-August, when the fields remain fallow after Boro harvest and before the plantation of T-Aman seedlings. Experts think that the prospect for the cultivation of the pariza paddy is bright in the greater Rangpur region.

The harvest of pariza completes by August 15, without facing any flood and paving the way for planting T-Aman seedlings in time to get three paddy harvests annually in the same land.

During the past 10 years, five late floods, including three devastating ones, occurred in Bangladesh in the period between August 26 and September 14, causing severe damages to the flowering T-Aman crops.

The country can ensure its food security and become a rice-exporting nation if the short-duration indigenous pariza paddy is cultivated in 3.5 million hectares of suitable land and an additional 9.0 million tonnes of paddy is produced annually.

The variety is cost-effective as a farmer needs only Tk 10,000 for cultivating pariza in one acre against Tk 20,000 for Boro and Tk 15,000 for T-Aman paddy.

There is another good news. The cultivation of BINA dhan-7 has created a new hope among the people across the five ‘Monga’-hit districts in the northern region of the country. The short-duration of BINA dhan-7 ripens earlier than that of the existing Aman varieties. This has opened up the opportunities to cultivate winter crops in proper time. The RDRS will distribute 150 tonnes of seed of this variety in the northern districts next year.

The cultivation of BINA dhan-7 has also reduced the trend of the landless peasants in the Monga-hit areas to leave the region and migrate to towns in search of work during the ‘Monga’ period as they now find work during the harvesting of this variety of rice.

Cambodia has showed keen interest in BINA dhan-7 and wants to introduce the same in Cambodia with technical assistance from RDRS Bangladesh. There should be mutual cooperation such as exchanging information and technology among the rice-producing countries so that food security is ensured around the globe.

The first-ever high-yielding Aman hybrid developed by the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) will be cultivated in the next Aman season. The production rate of BRRI dhan-48, BRRI dhan-50 and Hybrid-2 are 5 tonnes, 6.5 tonnes and 8.50 tonnes respectively per hectare.The average production of rice in the country is 4.01 tonnes per hectare. The same in China, Japan and Korea is 5 to 6 tonnes per hectare.

BRRI has also developed flood- and salinity-tolerant varieties to bring fallow lands under rice cultivation along the coastal belt and in the low-lying areas. The variety of BR-11-sub1, if submerged by floodwaters, can survive for even 15 days.

Farmers can get a good harvest if the weather is favourable, there is no excessive rain, if fertiliser and power for irrigation are available at affordable rates.

The government should fix the rice procurement price at such a level that farmers can get at least a profit margin of Tk 8-10 per kg.

The government has announced further reduction in the price of non-urea fertilizer, providing an additional subsidy of Tk 5.0 billion.

Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury recently said the government would play a supporting role in increasing food production in the country. The minister said the present government has taken an initiative to ease loan procedures for farmers to increase their financial ability, which will help boost crop production in the country.

If the government plays such a supportive role, only then the farmers will be benefited and the country will become self-sufficient in food production. The government can thus ensure food security in the country.

The writer can be reached at _ HYPERLINK “mailto: ehaque63@gmail.com”

Orange cultivation starts in Dinajpur

Courtesy: The Financial Express

21.12.2009

Our Correspondent

NILPHAMARI, Dec 21: Commercial cultivation of Darjeeling variety of orange has started in greater Dinajpur, particularly in Panchagarh district.

Sources said, it is expected that the plants would bear fruit from 2011 and the cultivators would start supplying it across the country from the year 2013.

Now orange cultivation is spreading rapidly everywhere, specially in all the union parishads of Tetulia upazila in Panchagarh district. A single tree bears 200 to 500 oranges.

In the year 2003 ministry of agriculture directed Bangladesh

Agriculture Research Institute (BARI) to provide a feasibility study report on orange cultivation in the prospective districts. Consequently, greater Dinajpur was found to be feasible for it, the sources said.

Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) has so far trained 1,500 farmers and provided them with orange saplings. In Panchagarh district there are 93 gardens in 108 hectares of land in which around 35,000 orange trees have grown.

Potato growers lament lack of cold storages in Rangpur, Dinajpur

Courtesy: The Financial Express

13.04.2010

Our correspondent

RANGUR Apr 5: Potato growers in eight districts of Rangpur division are facing serious problem in preserving their produce owing to shortage of cold storages.

According to the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE), a total of 31,32,500 tonnes of potato was produced in 1,70,700 hectares of land in Rangpur, Kurigram, Lalmonirhat, Gaibandha, Nilphamari, Dinajpur, Thakurgaon and Panchagarh districts.

DAE source said there are 62 cold storages in the region with the preservation capacity of 4,72,000 tonnes, which is quite insufficient for the large quantity of potato produced in the region this season.

Failing to ensure preservation of the potato harvest in cold storages, growers are being compelled either to sell their produce at lower rate or take it back home.

Anisur Rahman (45), a potato grower of Mithapukur Upzila under Rangpur district said hoarders are getting priority from the cold storage facility owners, which has created serious problem for the poor growers.

Many potato farmers said as the capacity of the cold storages was not adequate, government should take steps to help preserve their produces.

Mostofa Azad Chowdhury Babu, owner of a cold storage said some cold storages should be set up in the region at government initiative as the private cold storages have limited capacity.

http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/more.php?news_id=94545&date=2010-03-10

South-East Asia dominates global rice trade

Courtesy: The Financial Express

10.03.2010

BANGKOK, Mar 09 (Commodity Online): South-East Asian (SEA) region comprising two of world’s largest rice exporters, Thailand and Vietnam remained as world’s top trade destination for the commodity.

The food crisis of 2008 has inspired various countries in Asia to vie for status as the world’s rice bowl and many hope to be able to dethrone Thailand.

Among the key members in the region, Thailand, Vietnam, Burma, Cambodia and from south Asia, India and Pakistan continue to dominate the rice trade, with 21.32 million tonnes of the total global trade of 29.3 million in 2009. Their share is expected to rise to 23.4 million tonnes of the total of 30.84 million this year.

The 2008 food crisis has led to significant developments and expansion in Asia’s rice industry but Thailand, as the leading exporter, has stressed its determination to maintain its leadership position by implementing various measures.

One such measure that Thailand implemented last year was to guarantee farmers’ incomes, and the government remains optimistic about maintaining its export leadership position with expected exports of about 10 million tonnes this year.

Local investment in the rice industry – from grading to advanced silos and storage units – boomed in 2008 and 2009, when the oil crisis drove up the prices of many grains including rice, which sold at a record high of $1,222 per tonne for the Hom Mali variety.

Seven rice-grading projects, with a combined one billion baht in investment capital, received Board of Investment privileges in 2008 and the number increased to eight worth 930 million baht in 2009.

The agency also provided investment promotion for four rice silos, valued at more than 600 million baht during the period.

On the other hand Vietnam, the world’s second largest rice exporter, has set aside a fund of US$6 million (195.8 million baht) to improve rice quality.

Farm co-operatives are also able to obtain soft loans to build facilities such as milling plants, processing units, and warehouses.

Cambodia-Vietnam Foods Company has also been formed by the Vietnamese state enterprise Vinafood, Investment and Development Joint Stock Co (IDCC) and Green Trade Co of Cambodia to strengthen co-operation between the two countries in raising their production and export profiles.

Office of Agricultural Economics, said the recent expansion plans are an attempt to cash in on the rising global market as local governments become increasingly aware that rice could offer sustainable income and tackle poverty among farmers, a major problem for many governments.

“Improved incomes for farmers would not only resolve internal difficulties but also minimise problems such as illegal immigrants,” it said.

Burma has placed more importance on its rice industry in the past decade by allowing freer trade with the aim of promoting the grain as the major export item.