Expedite pesticide imports, or else Boro farming may be challenging

The fall of Bangladesh Taka against the US Dollar has sent alarm bells ringing among the stakeholders of the agriculture sector, who rely on imported inputs like seeds, fertilizer, pesticides and other agro-equipment. They fear this situation may further increase the cost of production for farmers, disturbing rural livelihoods as well as jeopardising national food security.
Though the prices of agricultural produce are also going up, these are not in proportion to the escalating cost of production creating a disparity between the incomes and expenses of the farmers, making them poorer and reducing their purchasing power to acquire farm inputs. It’s true that the farmers’ cost of production has shot up but rates of their produce have not increased proportionately.
A news report on Tuesday said that crop protection chemical sellers in the country are facing difficulty in opening letters of credit (LCs) amid commercial banks’ lack of interest due to the crunch of the US dollar. This raises concerns about the shortage of pesticides and other similar inputs that could affect the productivity of crops such as Boro rice. And the worry comes at a time when farmers are growing the Boro paddy, the biggest rice crop in Bangladesh, generating 55 per cent of the total rice production of around 3.79 crore tonnes estimated in the last fiscal year. The reserves stood at $32.63 billion at the end of last week, down from $45.35 billion a year ago, according to Bangladesh Bank data.
Mentionable that Bangladesh imports pesticides and other crop protection chemicals mostly from China, India, Germany and the United States. In 2021, farmers used 4,636 tonnes of granular insecticides, 2,240 tonnes of powder, 6,345 tonnes of liquid insecticides, and 18,000 tonnes of fungicide to protect their crops.
According to operators of leading multinational companies in the pesticide business segment in Bangladesh, Boro, a dry season rice crop, consumes roughly 60 per cent of pesticides and other crop protection chemicals while other crops, including potatoes and vegetables, consume the rest. So, ensuring the availability of pesticides at the farm level is vital to ensuring that farmers get the input on time for the use in their fields. The importing companies say they are facing difficulties in opening LCs due to the foreign exchange crisis.
We want that the agriculture ministry to initiate with the central bank the opening of LCs for pesticide import on a priority basis in a bid to secure national food security.