Bangladesh PM Urges Students to Cultivate Crops to Avert Looming Food Crisis

The Bangladeshi government has fixed the prices of nine commodities, including staple rice, amid eight-year high inflation triggered by supply disruptions on the international market. Bangladesh is buying rice and wheat from Vietnam and Russia.

Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday asked the governing Awami League's student wing -- Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) -- to cultivate crops, as she warned people of a deepening food crisis in the coming months.

"If needed, our Chhatra League will have to help farmers plant paddy seedlings as they did not harvest paddy (during the COVID-19 period)," she said.

The prime minister said the situation demands harvesting crops in villages, hostels, and educational institutes to increase food production.

"Everyone should cultivate and increase production in their respective locations. Because the situation in the world will be worse, even money cannot buy food," the PM said.

The South Asian country is taking measures such as reducing import duties and shoring up food reserves to fight the eight-year high inflation.

The Sheikh Hasina Cabinet on Wednesday approved a proposal to buy half a million tons of wheat from Russia on a government-to-government basis. The authorities also approved the purchase of 230,000 tons of rice from Vietnam and 100,000 tons from India.

PM Hasina blamed the global financial crisis for the current situation, as she informed the parliament that the government would have to spend $9 billion extra compared to the past years to meet inflated import bills.

The depleting foreign exchange reserves and fall in the value of the domestic currency against the US dollar have caused a severe impact on the fiscal balance of the country.

The forex reserves fell to $40 billion last month, while the Bangladeshi Taka has depreciated more than 10 percent this year.