Bright prospect for soybean farming in Bangladesh

Bangladesh could meet 40 percent of its soybean oil demand by producing Soybean locally, as there is a bright prospect for its farming.

“There is a bright prospect for local soybean production and we could meet 40 percent of our local demand of soybean oil if proper government support is available,” said an official at the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE).

He said the country's total demand for edible oil is around 13 lakh metric tonnes per year. Of the amount, 1.5 to 2 lakh tonnes come from mustard oil while the rest is met with imported soybean oil and palm oil.

“If the government support is available, 7-8 lakh hectares of lands in char areas could be brought under soybean cultivation from where 17-18 lakh metric tones of soybean could be produced. With this, around 40 percent of soybean oil demand could be met,” M Abdul Awal Mollah, project director of the Integrated Soybean Cultivation Project, told UNB.

In the 2009-10 season, he said, some 50,000 hectares of land will be brought under soybean cultivation with a production target of 90,000 metric tones under a five-year Integrated Soybean Cultivation Project launched in July 2005.

The project director said some 85,500 metric tonnes of soybean were produced on around 47,000 hectares of land in the 2008-09 under the project.

The project covered 29 upazilas of 16 districts. The districts are Barisal, Bhola, Faridpur, Patuakhali, Meherpur, Jessore, Rangpur, Kurigram, Thakurgaon, Tangail, Mymensingh, Jamalpur, Chandpur, Feni, Noakhali and Laxmipur. Of these, the bulk of the production came from Laxmipur followed by Noakhali and Barisal.

The project is jointly being implemented by the DAE, Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation (BADC), Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute (BARI) and Bangladesh Institute of Nuclear Agriculture (BINA).

Under the project, farmers and field-level workers are imparted training on soybean cultivation. “But, this is not enough, we think more and more farmers need to be brought under the programme and we cannot do that for lack of fund.”

He said lack of government interest and publicity, instable market price and unwillingness of industrialists are the major barriers to soybean cultivation in Bangladesh.

Awal said City Group of Industries, the country's major edible oil refiner, supplies around 3.5 lakh tonnes of oil throughout the country every year for which they mostly depend on import.

The major soybean-producing countries are the USA, Brazil, Argentina, Australia, China, India, Paraguay, Canada and Bolivia.

“We can meet the soybean demand of the edible oil refineries and the poultry feed makers by boosting soybean production,” Awal added.

Highlighting the bright prospect of soybean, especially in the forms of soymilk, soy meat, soy nuggets, soy sauce, textured vegetable protein (TVP), Awal said, “Soymilk could be sold at Tk 15 per kg if private entrepreneurs come forward to set up processing mills.”

He said they are trying to increase the yield capacity, which is now 1,700 kg per hectare.

Encouraged by the fair price of his produce, Shahidul Islam, a farmer in Laxmipur, now plans to bring two acres of land under soybean cultivation this year from one acre last year. “I sold a maund of soybean at Tk 1,200 on average last year. But the average price was Tk 800 the previous year,” he said.