“The potatoes produced in the country have less overseas demand due to high-water content in those. That is why it needs to cultivate the variety with high overseas demand,” he said while virtually addressing a cheque hand-over ceremony at Tangail’s Dhanbari upazila this afternoon.
Dr Razzaque said the country now annually witnesses over 1 crore tonnes domestic production of potatoes thanks to cultivation of high-yielding varieties.
Mentioning that the domestic demand for potatoes is around 60-70 tonnes, he stressed on exporting the surplus produce abroad.
He also assured the farmers that there are adequate stocks of potato seeds.
“The government has always been on the side of farmers, it is there now and it will definitely be there in future,” he said regarding the possible impact of the ongoing flood.
At the occasion, a total of 175 Farmers, who produce potato seeds and are in contract with Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation (BADC) - were provided with cheques worth TK 2.9 crore as price of their produces.