Abrar Hussain of DOT
Agricultural experts have warned that vegetable consumption rate of vegetables in the country is still very poor in, despite production increasing by 35.24% over the last five years (from2013-14 to 2017-18 FY), reports UNB.
According to officials at the Department of Agricultural Extension (DoAE), some 26,230,927 metric tons of vegetables were produced in 2017-18 fiscal year from 1,169,326 hectares of land, while 19,396,755 metric tons in 2013-2014 fiscal year from 968,827 hectares.
Also, 7,30,991 metric tons of root-crops/vegetables (excluding potatoes) were produced in 2017-2018 fiscal year against 5,72,946 metric tons in the previous year, the data revealed.
Agro experts lamented that in spite of the huge production, many people in the country still cannot consume the required amount of vegetables every day due to exorbitant prices of vegetables because of middlemen at different levels as well as the widening gap between production cost and the prices.
They also suggested boosting organic vegetable production across the country.
Chief scientific officer and head of Vegetable Departmental of Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) Dr Golam Morshed Abdul Halim told UNB that a healthy individual should take 300 grams of vegetable every day but Bangladeshis take just one-third of it.
Furthermore, 35-40% of total vegetables are wasted from production to consumption levels due to absence of storage facility and better transportation system, he said.
Although Bangladesh ranked 3rd in vegetable production in the world, the production is not sufficient to meet the demand of its growing population.