Bangladesh will not place restrictions on seed imports – agriculture minister

Bangladesh’s agriculture minister, Abdus Shaheed, said this week that the country’s government is committed to maintaining unrestricted import policies for improved seed varieties from India.

He made the comment following a meeting with Pranoy Verma, the newly appointed Indian High Commissioner to Dhaka, and stressed the importance of ‘border-free’ seed imports in ensuring food security and advancing agriculture.

Despite voicing his commitment to unrestricted seed imports, Shaheed noted that the question of duty exemption for these imports remains under the purview of the Finance Ministry and the National Board of Revenue.

Shaheed and Verma also discussed Bangladesh’s agricultural storage and distribution capacities, acknowledging the lack of government-owned cold storage facilities, and explored plans to establish official cold storage in each district.

Lastly, the agriculture minister gave his thoughts on the state of fertilizer management and distribution in the country. He denied that the agriculture ministry has played a role in driving food price inflation, attributing price hikes to other factors.

He underscored the ministry’s efforts to regulate fertilizer prices and to ensure direct delivery to farmers, saying he is committed to transparency and efficiency in agricultural resource management.