Dhaka, Aug 18 - Bangladesh's military-backed government hopes to grow more rice over the next year in an attempt to boost food supplies despite the high price of fertiliser and a shortage of power to irrigate land.
Officials said on Monday the government had set a target of 36.68 million tonnes of food rains, mostly rice, in the 2008-09 (July-June) fiscal year, up nearly 20 percent year on year.
Food grain prices have nearly doubled over the past year, triggering protests by many poor Bangladeshis and provoking criticism of the government.
The calamity-prone south Asian country produced 30.7 million tonnes of rice and wheat in the year to June 2008, despite two floods and a deadly cyclone which destroyed nearly 2 million tonnes of rice in the fields.
Rice is the main staple for Bangladesh's more than 140 million people, nearly half of whome live on less than $1 a day.
The government wants to halve poverty by 2020 but experts say the number of poor has increased by around 4 million since the current interim government took charge in January 2007.
They blame it mainly on global phenomena such as soaring food and fuel prices but also on poor management domestically.
Although food prices have started falling in global markets, they are still rising or remain unchanged in Bangladesh.
Officials say the target for the country's rice output in the current fiscal year is 35.63 million tonnes, 23 percent higher than its 2006/07 output of around 29 million tonnes.
FOOD SECURITY
Annual wheat output is expected to reach 1.04 million tonnes, around 26 percent higher than the 827,000 tonnes it produced last fiscal year, an agriculture ministry official told Reuters.
But adequate and timely supply of farm inputs such as seed, fertiliser, irrigation, electricity and agricultural credit remained a concern.
If the government fails to ensure these, the ambitious production targets may be missed, experts and economists say.
In 2006, shortage of fuel and manure triggered violent protests by farmers in the country's northern districts. Six people were killed and dozens injured in clashes with police.
Government leaders have said they are working on a food security plan based on forecasts of higher production, imports mainly by the private sector and domestic procurement of rice.
Bangladesh is approaching a new flood season in September, when the second major rice variety "aman" will still be in the fields.
The authorities are also worried about emergency food stocks, which stand at 1 million tonnes but need to be raised to over 3 million tonnes, officials said.
"We hope to have the stocks at least more than twice the current level with domestic procurement at 1.3 million tonnes, helped by a bumper harvest of "boro" rice in April-May," one food ministry official said.
Bangladesh produced more than 17 million tonnes of boro in the just ended season, he said. Bangladesh expects to receive another 334,000 tonnes of food grains as grants over the year.