Agriculture accounted for 22.8 pc of GDP in last fiscal
Experts tell seminar
Staff Correspondent
Agriculture accounted for about 22.8 percent of GDP in the last fiscal and the rice production dominated the crop sector with an average share of 71 percent of gross output value of all crops, experts said yesterday.The total demand for rice in 2005 will be 26.67 million metric tons and production requirement of paddy will be 39.80 million metric tons, they said at a seminar on 'Present status and future demand for rice in Bangladesh'. The Bangladesh Rice Research Institute organised the seminar in Gazipur to mark the International Year of Rice 2004 and the National Rice Day (proposed). The required production of paddy would stand at 48.69 million metric tons in 2025 to meet the growing demand, the experts said. They also suggested adopting both short-term and long-term strategies to increase production. As short-term measures, varietal replacement through modern variety rice, increasing supply of quality seeds and application of improved management practices at farm level can be used to enhance rice production, they said. They also called for developing hybrid rice variety. Agriculture Minister MK Anwar attended the seminar as chief guest and Dr AR Gomosta presided over it. Mohammad Ismail, chairman of BADC, Nurul Alam, chairman of BARC, and Dr M Mohiul Hoque, director general of BRRI, also spoke. The BRRI also took out a colourful procession to celebrate the day.
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