Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury yesterday told parliament that the government has taken up a plan to supply some 1.36 lakh metric tonnes of high quality seeds to farmers in the current fiscal, reports UNB. “A plan has been undertaken to produce 1,36,069 metric tonnes of high quality seeds of different crops and supply the seeds to the farmers by the Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation (BADC) in the 2016-17 fiscal,” she said, replying to an unstarred question from M Abdul Latif MP (Chittagong-11). In the last five fiscals (2011-12 to 2015-16), a total of 6,77,731 metric tonnes of high quality seeds of various crops were produced and supplied to the farmers by the BADC, Matia said.
In reply to a starred question from Mohammad Shubid Ali Bhuiyan MP (Comilla-1), the agriculture minister said some 85.05 lakh hectares of land is cultivable in the country. The government will take proper measures to stop the use of fertile arable lands for other purposes including construction of structures owned by the private sector, building houses and brick kilns, she said.