Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday said Bangladesh would be able to meet six to nine months of food import expenditures with the existing foreign currency reserves. “We have money in our hands to import food grains and others (essentials items) for at least three months during any crisis. We’ll be able to import the food for six to nine months, not only for three months, with the reserve that we have now,” she said. The premier was addressing the 28th founding anniversary programme of Bangladesh Awami Swechasebak League at Krishibid Institution Bangladesh auditorium in the city’s Farmgate area, joining it through a virtual platform from her official residence Ganobhaban. She said despite having enough reserve, the government will have to take steps to grow more crops in order to save the foreign currencies and keep the forex reserve for any emergency. Awami Swechasebak League, an associate body and the volunteer wing of Bangladesh Awami League, was founded on July 27 in 1994. Noting that the reserve was some US$ 3.8 billion in 2006 during the BNP regime, the prime minister said her government was able to raise it to US$ 48 billion from US$ 7 billion in 2009. She said Bangladesh had to spend huge amounts of foreign currencies from the reserve to import the materials for development works, capital machines for the industries as well as Covid-19 vaccines, testing kits and other Covid materials. The people of the country would be benefited when the imported capital machineries go in operation, she added. Taking a swipe at the critics of the government over forex reserve and energy, Hasina questioned why they don’t see the development activities of the government. She said the government continues providing a huge subsidy, placed such a budget, raised the per capita income and has been able to keep the GDP growth. The PM said her government pledged to reach electricity to every house and also kept this promise. But now many developed countries are taking austerity measures over the use of energy amid the global economic recession. “We’ve also to take precautionary measures so that we will not fall in a great danger….we’ve taken steps for limited use of electricity. But it doesn’t mean that we don’t have any energy or it is running out,” she added.

The government will procure a total of 9.5 lakh metric tonnes of foodgrains from the farmers across the country in the current fiscal year, according to a decision on Sunday. Under the programme, three lakh metric tonnes of paddy, five lakh metric tonnes of boiled rice and 1.5 lakh metric tons of wheat will be procured. The decision was taken at an online meeting of the Food Planning and Monitoring Unit (FPMU) chaired by Food Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder on Sunday. Read:Food grain storage capacity to be increased to 35 lakh mts by 2030: Food Minister The government has fixed the paddy procurement price at Tk 27 per kg, boiled rice at Tk 40 per kg and wheat at Tk 28 per kg, said Sadhan Chandra. The paddy procurement drive will begin on November 7 while the wheat procurement drive on April 1 in 2022, he said. In order to ensure fair prices to the farmers and increase food stock, the government procures paddy and rice every year during the Boro season but only rice is collected during the Aman season.