Govt to hike warehouse capacity

Food Minister Abdur Razzaque speaks at a meeting on food security, organised by the American Chamber of Commerce in Bangladesh (AmCham) at Dhaka Sheraton Hotel yesterday. AMCHAM

The government plans to increase the capacity of warehouses to ensure a sustainable food security, said the food and disaster management minister yesterday.
“We are trying to increase the country's food production,” said Dr Abdur Razzaque.
“We are also planning to increase the capacity of warehouses by up to three lakh tonnes by the next fiscal year. It'll gradually increase the capacity by up to five lakh tonnes in two years,” the minister said.
Razzaque was addressing a luncheon meeting on food security organised by the American Chamber of Commerce in Bangladesh (AmCham) at Dhaka Sheraton Hotel.
Currently, the government warehouses have the capacity to store 12 lakh tonnes of rice, according to the agriculture ministry.
Razzaque said the government is planning to utilise abandoned and vacant warehouses along with setting up new ones for food storage. "If necessary, the private sector will also be encouraged," he said.
The food minister said the main goal of the government is to attain self-sufficiency in food production.
“It's not impossible to achieve self-sufficiency in food production, as we have fertile soil and water. We will run a surplus of food production in a few years,” he added.
The minister said 60 percent of land is under cultivation in Bangladesh and a good policy can boost production, prioritising farmers' interest.
The government will introduce latest technology and will encourage more investment in agricultural research to modernise the agriculture sector that will increase food production and enhance food security eventually, said food minister.
“We have selected the agro-based industry as a thrust sector. Industrial and trade policies offer some facilitating measures such as cash incentive for agricultural export, reduce interest rate for agriculture loans for high-value crops and rebate in electricity billing in the agro-based industry to make it competitive,” said the minister.
At the same time, the government has plans to produce food items on an industrial basis and introduce diversified food production, including different vegetables and fruits, so the farmers can export them after meeting the local demand, Razzaque said.
He said the government would inspire and help the farmers to increase production of organic food and processed fish, as these products have increasing demand on the global market.
The minister hoped that the business leaders would come up to invest in agriculture in order that agriculture gets significant momentum to grow and agriculture trade gets a boost.
“The business community can play an important role by increasing investment in agriculture, value addition in agro products and help commercialise agriculture in a way to increase share of exports from agriculture,” the minister said.
“I personally believe there are tremendous potentials for Bangladesh to become a food-exporting country from the status of food-importing country, especially if we can attain crop diversification, commercialise agriculture and ensure quality in the production and marketing chain,” Dr Razzaque said.
"Once Bangladesh had spent most of its earnings on procuring food but the situation has now improved," he said.
“We don't have much problem but the problem is that 40 percent of the population, who make up nearly 65 million, are living below the poverty line,” Razzaque said.
Heather Variava, deputy chief of the economic and political affairs of the US Embassy in Dhaka and Syed Ershad Ahmed, president of AmCham were also present at the meeting.