Kazi Zahidul Hasan :
Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) in association with the exporters has taken a pilot project to grow vegetables without pesticide reside.
It has apparently come up with the project to fulfill phytosanitary requirements enforced by the major vegetable importing nations from Bangladesh.
“A pilot project has been initiated for growing vegetables organically. The DAE has taken the project to fulfil the requirement of importing nations especially the European countries,” a senior DAE official told The New Nation on Saturday.
He said, we will follow all the basic elements of organic vegetable production, from initial site location, soil preparation, irrigation and variety selection to insect and disease control, composting, mulching and fertilization, plantation and harvesting.
“We have already selected 20 farming sites under 10 districts for implementing the task. Once the project is implemented, it will help guard against the falling trend of vegetables exports from the country,” he said.
The DAE official mentioned that Bangladesh’s fresh fruits and vegetable exports witnessed a sharp fall in the immediate past fiscal mainly due to failure in meeting such requirements.
Vegetable exports during the fiscal 2014-15 were recorded at $103.24 million against the exports of $147.55 million of previous fiscal, showing a 30.03 per cent year-on-year fall, according to the data of Export Promotion Bureau (EPB).
The country’s fresh fruits and vegetables are exported mainly to the Europe and the Middle East.
Aubergine, green chilli, lime, bottle guard, snake guard, bitter guard, bean and cucumber represent the main export items.
“Vegetable exports during the immediate past fiscal fell by 30 per cent than the corresponding period of previous fiscal due to failure to meet certain phytosanitary requirements enforced by importing countries,” Manjur Ahmed, Adviser of Bangladesh Fruits, Vegetables and Allied Products Exporters Association (BFVAPEA) told The New Nation on Saturday.
According to him, earlier European countries, including the UK, represent 50 per cent of the country’s total vegetable exports. But it now came down to 36 per cent in the wake of rising safe food concern by the importing countries.
He added that a falling demand of local vegetables from the European countries, especially the UK, was mainly responsible for the decreasing export earnings.
“DAE and the exporters have jointly taken various projects for producing safe vegetables to comply with the European standard. At the same time, steps have taken to develop the country’s quarantine and traceability system.
There are also some other shortcomings on the way to vegetable exports. These are: lack of a central warehouse, modern packaging system and air-con area in airport, application of proper system in between the plantation to post harvest of vegetables and inefficiency in supply chain,” said Manjur Ahmed.
He mentioned that the ministry of commerce and agriculture is working on these key issues. And if these issues are addressed successfully, it will help regain confidence of the European importers, giving afresh boost to the country’s vegetable exports in future.
Apart from this, the country needs to adopt and implement a Good Agricultural Practice (GAP) protocol which will bring the marketing of agro-produces under international standardisation and accreditation.
Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) in association with the exporters has taken a pilot project to grow vegetables without pesticide reside.
It has apparently come up with the project to fulfill phytosanitary requirements enforced by the major vegetable importing nations from Bangladesh.
“A pilot project has been initiated for growing vegetables organically. The DAE has taken the project to fulfil the requirement of importing nations especially the European countries,” a senior DAE official told The New Nation on Saturday.
He said, we will follow all the basic elements of organic vegetable production, from initial site location, soil preparation, irrigation and variety selection to insect and disease control, composting, mulching and fertilization, plantation and harvesting.
“We have already selected 20 farming sites under 10 districts for implementing the task. Once the project is implemented, it will help guard against the falling trend of vegetables exports from the country,” he said.
The DAE official mentioned that Bangladesh’s fresh fruits and vegetable exports witnessed a sharp fall in the immediate past fiscal mainly due to failure in meeting such requirements.
Vegetable exports during the fiscal 2014-15 were recorded at $103.24 million against the exports of $147.55 million of previous fiscal, showing a 30.03 per cent year-on-year fall, according to the data of Export Promotion Bureau (EPB).
The country’s fresh fruits and vegetables are exported mainly to the Europe and the Middle East.
Aubergine, green chilli, lime, bottle guard, snake guard, bitter guard, bean and cucumber represent the main export items.
“Vegetable exports during the immediate past fiscal fell by 30 per cent than the corresponding period of previous fiscal due to failure to meet certain phytosanitary requirements enforced by importing countries,” Manjur Ahmed, Adviser of Bangladesh Fruits, Vegetables and Allied Products Exporters Association (BFVAPEA) told The New Nation on Saturday.
According to him, earlier European countries, including the UK, represent 50 per cent of the country’s total vegetable exports. But it now came down to 36 per cent in the wake of rising safe food concern by the importing countries.
He added that a falling demand of local vegetables from the European countries, especially the UK, was mainly responsible for the decreasing export earnings.
“DAE and the exporters have jointly taken various projects for producing safe vegetables to comply with the European standard. At the same time, steps have taken to develop the country’s quarantine and traceability system.
There are also some other shortcomings on the way to vegetable exports. These are: lack of a central warehouse, modern packaging system and air-con area in airport, application of proper system in between the plantation to post harvest of vegetables and inefficiency in supply chain,” said Manjur Ahmed.
He mentioned that the ministry of commerce and agriculture is working on these key issues. And if these issues are addressed successfully, it will help regain confidence of the European importers, giving afresh boost to the country’s vegetable exports in future.
Apart from this, the country needs to adopt and implement a Good Agricultural Practice (GAP) protocol which will bring the marketing of agro-produces under international standardisation and accreditation.
