Lower domestic production of lentils, chickpeas, mung, onion and garlic in FY23 has driven up imports of those products to the country, said people involved in this sector.

Drop in production of the essentials forced the country to spend more foreign currency on imports at a time when it was suffering due to a dollar crisis, said experts.

Moreover, higher import dependency increases the price of such essentials in the local market when instability erupts in the international market, said agro-economist and researcher Dr Jahangir Alam Khan.

To remedy the crisis, the government has to take different initiatives to increase the production of those crops after carefully estimating the local demand, said the stakeholders.

Local production of lentils declined by around 0.23 lakh tonnes in FY23 compared to the previous fiscal year, in continuation of a declining trend observed in the previous three years, according to the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE).

Lentil production in the country was around 1.85 lakh tonnes in FY23, around 2.08 lakh tonnes in FY22, about 2.58 lakh tonnes in FY21 and around 2.6 lakh tonnes in FY20, according to the DAE.

The country’s chickpeas production in the last fiscal year dropped to 0.029 lakh tonnes from 0.049 lakh tonnes in FY22.

Moreover, the local production of mung dropped to 2.78 lakh tonnes in FY23 from 2.83 lakh tonnes in FY22.

Production of garlic in the country also fell to 6.483 lakh tonnes in FY23 from 7.701 lakh tonnes in the previous fiscal year.

The local production of onion declined to 34.57 lakh tonnes in FY23 from 36.41 lakh tonnes in FY22.

Due to the drop in local production, the import of those products increased in the last couple of fiscal years.  Especially, the imports of onion, garlic, and lentils increased significantly in FY23 when the country was suffering due to the dollar crisis and higher commodity prices.

Bangladesh imported around 5.22 lakh tonnes of lentils in FY23, while it imported around 4.36 lakh tonnes in FY22.

The country imported around 7.43 lakh tonnes of onion in the last fiscal year while it imported around 6.64 lakh tonnes in FY22.

Garlic import to the country was around 0.94 lakh tonnes in FY23 while it was around 0.50 lakh tonnes in the previous fiscal year.

Meanwhile, the country imported around 1.07 lakh tonnes of mung in FY23 while it imported around 0.45 lakh tonnes in FY22, according to government sources.

The amount of chickpeas imported to the country was around 3.02 lakh tonnes in FY23 while it was around 3.76 lakh tonnes in FY22.

Tajul Islam Patwary, director (monitoring wing) of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), told the Daily Sun that there is a crisis of specific types of land needed for cultivating these crops, which do not grow in all types of lands.

The DAE has taken different projects to increase the production of the crops and give incentives to farmers after identifying suitable land for these crops, he added.