“The cyclone damaged standing paddy (rice) worth 20 billion taka (US$291 million),” Agriculture Minister C.S Karim told state-run BSS news agency.

Cyclone Sidr smashed into the southern coastal districts of the delta nation on Nov. 15, killing at least 3,200 people and leaving millions homeless or short of basic staples such as rice.

The cyclone follows damage to summer crops of rice and other food grains by heavy floods in July and August. As a result, Bangladesh faces a shortfall of 3.1 million metric tons to meet domestic demand in the year ending June 2008, Karim said.

To fill the gap, the government plans to import one million tons of food grains in the coming months on top of 1.1 million already imported and allow private firms to import an additional 900,000 tons, Karim said.

International donors have also pledged 500,000 tons of food aid in the wake of the cyclone, he said.

Bangladesh think-tank, the Center for Policy Dialogue, last week gave an initial cyclone damage estimate of more than US$1.5 billion and said economic growth would slow as a result.

“We think growth will slow down to somewhere between five and six percent as a result of the floods and the cyclone,” the center’s executive director Mustafizur Rahman said.

Bangladesh’s US$69 billion economy was projected to grow at seven percent in the year ending June 2008. But even before the cyclone, the floods had forced the central bank to lower its growth forecast to 6.5 percent.

The economy expanded at a record 6.6 percent last year.

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