Railway to use 3,850 acres of uncultivated land to boost food production
The railways ministry has asked the railway zone general managers to prepare a work plan to increase food production by Thursday
Bangladesh Railway has started the work to use its uncultivated land for agriculture to increase the country's food production as per a recent directive from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
The railway officials said the state-owned transport agency has around 3,850 acres of uncultivated land across the country which can be used for boosting food production.
After a regular cabinet meeting on 14 November, Cabinet Secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam told the journalists that the prime minister had asked all the officials concerned to increase food production as the next year could be critical.
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Following the prime minister's directive, the railways ministry held a meeting on Tuesday to assess the amount of uncultivated land belonging to them and how they can make a good use of it.
Md Humayun Kabir, secretary of railways ministry, has asked the general managers of the county's two railway zones to send a work plan to increase food production by Thursday.
Asim Kumar Talukder, general manager of Bangladesh Railway (West), told The Business Standard that the prime minister said no land in the country will be left uncultivated. There are around 3,500 acres of uncultivated land under the Railway's west zone.
"We will encourage the people to cultivate different crops and vegetables in the uncultivated land. Moreover, many people took lease of our land, but did not cultivate anything on it. We will motivate them to cultivate crops there," said Asim Kumar Talukder.
Jahangir Hossain, general manager of Railway's East Zone, told TBS that there are around 350 acres of uncultivated land under their authority in Dhaka and Chattogram.
"We will encourage people to take lease of the railway land for cultivating crops and vegetables," said Jahangir Hossain.
Earlier, Agriculture Minister Mohammad Abdur Razzaque sought cooperation from three ministries concerned to grow crops in all the arable lands procured by sugar, jute and textile mills, and Bangladesh Railway.
The minister wrote to the ministries, urging them to take initiatives to grow food grains, vegetables, pulses and oilseeds on unutilised cultivable lands under government-owned institutions to tackle possible food shortages driven by ongoing global crises.
