DHAKA: Bangladesh has lifted its three-year ban on exports of aromatic rice with immediate effect in the face of falling domestic prices after a record harvest, Food and Disaster Management Minister Mohammed Abdur Razzaque said on Thursday.

The end of the ban, imposed in 2009, follows protests by farmers, complaining that their cost of production was higher than the domestic market price for the grain.

The rice crop for the year to this June rose to a record of about 35 million tonnes from the previous year's 34.25 million and follows efforts by the government in recent years to imporve productivity.

Razzaque said the government had recently increased the price it pays to farmers but did not have sufficient storage facilities to make large purchases.

"We are trying every option to support the farmers," he told Reuters.

The higher rice crop should also mean a sharp reduction in food import needs, officials said.

In the previous fiscal year, Bangladesh imported nearly 5.0 million tonnes of grain, government data showed.