Zakir Hossain . Rangpur, The Daily New Age, 26 November 2007

POTATO cultivation in eight districts of the Rangpur-Dinajpur region is likely to face a setback this year due to shortage of quality seeds.
   A total of 1.15 lakh hectares of land were brought under the potato cultivation with a production target of 19,56,700 tonnes. The demand for seeds in the targeted land is about 1.5 lakh tonnes while the Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation could supply only 1,600 tonnes of seeds to the farmers. The huge gap between the demand and supply of quality seeds has worried potato farmers.
   Afzal Hossein, a farmer at Nabdiganj Bazar under the Rangpur district headquarters, said he had planned to cultivate potato on his one acre of land this year. He tried to collect seeds from the BADC and NGOs to ensure the quality. But he could not procure it, as the supply was very thin. So, he managed seeds from local markets. He apprehended that the production would be affected, as the seeds collected from local markets were not quality seeds.
   According to farmers, they are somehow collecting seeds from local NGOs like BRAC and Rangpur-Dinajpur Rural Service, private sectors and elsewhere. Many of them alleged that the quality of the seeds that they were managing was substandard. Farmers feared that the production would be affected for the huge shortfall of quality seeds.
   Officials in the Department of Agriculture Extension said a total of 1,15,100 hectares of land were brought under potato cultivation in Rangpur, Dinajpur, Gaibandha, Kurigram, Lalmonirhat, Thakurgaon, Nilphamari and Panchagarh this year while it was 1.35 lakh hectares in the last year.
   Of the target, 33,500 hectares were brought under Rangpur, 26,300 hectares under Dinajpur, 16,700 hectares under Nilphamari, 16,200 hectares under Thakurgaon, 6,700 hectares under Gaibandha, 6,700 hectares under Panchagarh, 4,500 hectares under Kurigram and 4,500 hectares under Lalmonirhat.
   Asadur Rhaman, deputy director of the Rangpur BADC, said there would be no shortage of seeds as a huge stock of seeds remained in the hands of farmers.
   But MG Neazi, agriculture coordinator of the RDRS, said the farmers preserved potato for consumption which was being sold now in the local markets as seeds. ‘It is completely substandard,’ he added.
   Neazi said the RDRS had planned to combat the seed crisis launching a pilot programme. It has planned to train up groups of farmers in the production of quality seeds, he added.
   ‘About 70-80 per cent demands of the seeds are met up by the farmers. So, they need to be trained up in the production of quality seeds ’, Neazi said.

Star Business Report, The Daily Star, 22 May 2008

The increased cultivation of vegetables on rural farmsteads would substantially help meet the country’s demand for such produce, agriculturalist said at a workshop yesterday.

“We are working with farmers to increase production at homesteads. We would be able to better meet our food demand if we grew vegetables on 1.5 crore homesteads in the country,” IRRI Representative for Bangladesh Dr Zainul Abedin said at a workshop at BRAC Centre Inn.

The FoSHol Coordination Project, IRRI in collaboration with Care, ActionAid and Practical Action organized the workshop aimed at strengthening farmers’ access to improved vegetable seeds for homestead cultivation.

“Our annual production of vegetables is about 20 lakh tonnes. But it can be increased much by bringing homesteads under cultivation,” said SM Monowar Hossain of FoSHoL-Coordination Project.

He blamed poor quality seeds and suggested using good quality seeds to increase production.

According to official data, Bangladesh’s yearly requirement for vegetable seeds is about 2800 metric tonnes. Of the total requirement, good quality seeds constitute only 37 percent. The remaining 63 percent are poor quality seeds.

BARC Executive Chairman Dr MA Razzaque said homesteads could be one of the main places for landless people to grow vegetables. “But they should be provided with good quality seeds,” he said.