Acute shortage of quality seeds costs the farmers 15-20 percent in jute production every year while unavailability of enough water for the jute plant to rot lowers the quality of the fibre.

The government again does not have any workable plan to reach seeds to the farmers.

Every year around 4,000 tonnes of seed are required to grow jute on about five lakh hectares of land, but the Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation (BADC) can produce only 700-1,000 tonnes annually. Farmers add to the tally with 500-700 tonnes.

Pointing to inefficiency in marketing, a high BADC official said his department grew 750 tonnes of seed this year, but could sell only 350 tonnes.

He then said projecting the demand for seeds is also difficult because farmers change their mind to grow jute with fluctuations in jute prices.

"Around 60 percent seeds are imported from India. But quality is never ensured though the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) has facilities for this," said a scientist at the Bangladesh Jute Research Institute (BJRI).

Besides, sub-standard seeds are smuggled from across the border. "These low-quality seeds significantly reduce production--one-two bales per hectare," he said.

He blamed farmers for not distinguishing the quality gap between the locally-produced seeds and the imported ones.

But imported seeds are cheaper and traders sometimes sell them on credit.

The BADC official said farmers have the misconception that Indian seeds are better and yield higher, noting that plants from them may grow taller, but their sticks and fibre are not of good quality.

The country mostly grows local and tossa varieties of jute. The local variety is cultivated in the lowlands of greater Dhaka and Mymensingh regions, while different tossa varieties are grown on higher land in the northern districts.

This year 51.60 lakh bales of jute were grown on 4.95 lakh hectares of land, Mainuddin Ahmed, deputy director (cash crop wing) at the DAE, said.

The local variety yielded eight bales and tossa varieties 11 bales a hectare. The figures for the past year were 7.85 and 10.46 bales per hectare, according to the DAE.

Ensuring quality seeds for the farmers would increase jute production, a BJRI official said, adding that the government can consider giving them seeds at subsidised prices.

Agriculturists said jute grown in Jessore and in many northern districts get poor ratings because farmers do not get enough water to rot the plant.

The BJRI developed a jute-rotting technology requiring small amount of water.

Farmers traditionally remove fibre after rotting the jute plants in water for two to three weeks; the BJRI technology requires them to skin the fibre first, and then keep them in water pots.

The low-cost ribbon rating technology however has not reached the farmers, an official at the BJRI said.

"Fibre quality is very important. You don't get good products without good jute," he said.