Anisul Islam Noor :Bangladesh earned Tk 2.33 billion by exporting potatoes in 2014 -15 fiscal year, Export Promotion Bureau sources said.Potato export has been increasing since 2012. A report said, Bangladesh has managed to triple its potato production in last 12 years.The silent progress of agriculture in Bangladesh is lauded abroad and by the UN body, sources said.In a joint report of International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) , it is said, there has been a silent revolution in potato growth in Bangladesh as the country has been able to increase the production of the crop to 26 times in 60 years. The report published recently mentioned that Bangladesh has managed to triple its potato production in last 12 years.In the eighties, potato was grown in a smaller scale in Munshiganj and some other parts of Bangladesh. Then the country produced 0.9 million tonnes of potato in 1980 which soared to nearly 100 million tonnes in 2015.Potato is now the second staple food item of Bangladesh. Potato consumption rose by 10 times from 1980.Talking about the progress in potato production, agriculture minister Matia Chowdhury told media, “We are not just focussing on increasing potato production, but concentrating on growing quality potatoes for exports.””At the same time, we have set up potato storages which do not require electricity. Bangladesh has been exporting potatoes to neighboring countries and even to the European market for the last few years,” she said.According to the last statistics of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations in 2013, Bangladesh is ranked seventh in potato production.China, India, Russia, Ukraine, USA and Germany are ahead of Bangladesh in the FAO report. In 2013, Bangladesh achieved the seventh position with 8.6 million tonnes of potato production from around 3.0 million tonnes in 2002.When asked about the surprising progress in potato production, IFPRI Bangladesh Chief Executive Akhtar Ahmed told that the achievement came for the farming community and agriculture scientists.However, potato farmers fall in trouble with their produce, as they find no room in cold storages to store potatoes, he said. According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), Bangladesh produced 92.54 million tonnes of potatoes this year. Directorate of Agriculture Extension predicted the production of potatoes will surpass 100 million of tonnes in 2015.
