Riding on phenomenal success in maize production growth, Bangladesh is now looking to a further expansion of the acreage and output of the country’s second biggest cereal crop after rice and tapping the export market within the next five years. Thanks to farmers’ gaining higher profit margins, right policy support and a burgeoning feed industry, Bangladesh’s annual maize output hit a record seven-fold increase from 0.75 million tons in 2009 to 5.4 million tons this year.
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The Agriculture Ministry now envisages a plan to increase maize production to 10 million tons by 2025, thereby turning Bangladesh into a maize exporting country from an importing one. With an ever-increasing rise in demand, largely owing to the fish, dairy and poultry feed industry, Bangladesh is still about a million tons short of meeting its domestic maize requirements of 6.5 million tons. Yet private traders exported 20,000 tons of maize to Nepal for the first time last year. With over 36 million tons of annual rice output, Bangladesh is now self-sufficient in the staple, while the country largely depends on imports to meet over six million tons of yearly wheat requirements. Domestic production of wheat hovers around one to 1.3 million tons only, depending on weather and acreage factors. In recent years, wheat crops suffered some losses due to wheat blast -- a fungal attack. Prospects for a further growth in maize seem promising, with two major challenges ahead, though – ...
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