Bangladesh rice production rises over 3 percent in 2011

Bangladesh produced a record 34.25 million tonnes of rice in 2011, 3.16 percent more than the previous year, helped by favourable weather and continued government support for the farming sector, a senior agriculture official said on Sunday.
"Bangladesh has now almost achieved self sufficiency in food grains (rice and wheat), with most farmers using high-yielding seeds," said the official, who requested not to be named.
Besides, the government offers hefty subsidies to the agriculture sector to ensure food security and supplies fertiliser and diesel (for running irrigation pumps) at affordable prices, officials and farmers have said.
The south Asian country produced 33.2 million tonnes of rice, the main staple for its more than 150 million people, in 2010, according to data available with the Department of Agriculture Extension and Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics.