Agriculture and home affairs adviser Md Jahangir Alam Chowdhury on Saturday said that the government would procure potatoes this year to support farmers as they were not getting fair prices due to higher production.
鈥楢lthough vegetable prices are rising, potato prices have dropped. Farmers are not getting fair value for potatoes this year, and they are incurring losses.
That is why, the government has planned to procure some potatoes,鈥� he said.
The adviser briefed reporters after visiting different research and processing centres of Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation at Gabtali area in the capital.
The adviser said that BADC鈥檚 tissue culture centres were producing tissue-cultured potatoes, pineapples, dates and various flowers. 鈥榃e import dates, but if we can expand the locally produced seedlings through this technology, dependency on imports will decrease.鈥�
Mentioning that Bangladesh has to import potato seeds from countries like the Netherlands at high costs, he said that producing improved varieties of potato seeds locally will benefit the country鈥檚 agriculture. 鈥楤ADC鈥檚 tissue culture lab is working in this regard.鈥�
About the recent surge in vegetable prices, the adviser said that vegetable fields had been affected by heavy rainfall, which had an impact on the market.
鈥楾he problem will ease once the weather improves,鈥� the adviser said.