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Bangladesh could increase
rice
productivity from 30 to 60% by using hybrid seeds, improvement of
crop management and proper utilisation of fertiliser for attaining
food security.
“Open Market Sale (OMS) of
rice,
social safety net programmes and 100 day Employment Guarantee Scheme
(EGS) are some of the effective measures taken by the government to
ensure food security for the vulnerable people,” Country Director
of the World Bank Xian Zhu has said.
He was speaking at a
workshop on
'Impacts of Food Crisis in Bangladesh' organised by the World Bank at
its office in Dhaka.
Some 40 lakh people of the
country have
been pushed down under the poverty line anew by the recent food-price
rises due to natural disaster on the domestic front coupled with
volatility on the international market, according to World Bank's
findings.
Vinaya Swaroop, lead
economist of the
bank for Bangladesh presented the keynote paper.
Xian Zhu said the price of
rice
remained high despite the bumper production of 'Boro' crop. It is
causing hardship to the poor and low-income group of people and
eroding nearly one-fifth of their household income.
Vinaya Swaroop said
currently the price
of coarse variety of rice is still high in comparison to the last
year price.
He said the overall food
inflation in
the country has been in double digits since the beginning of this
year due to rising of rice prices. “High rice price has forced the
poor and low-income group to spend one-fourth and one-third of their
household expenditure,” he said adding that poverty has declined 2%
from 40% in 2005 to 38% in 2008. (Source: The Daily Star)
August 27, 2008
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