Agriculture Minister and Awami League presidium member commented that the Bangladesh government is taking all kinds of preparations with utmost importance to maintain food security in the future. Md. Abdur Razzaq.
He said that in order to sustain food security by facing various challenges including increasing population growth, reduction of agricultural land, climate change, the agri-food system must be transformed and adapted to the times. Bangladesh government is working towards that goal.
He said these things in a speech delivered as a panelist in the plenary session on transformation of the agri-food system of the ongoing UN Food Systems Summit at the headquarters of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization on Tuesday morning local time in Rome, Italy.
This information was informed in a press release of the Ministry of Agriculture on Tuesday (July 25).
The agriculture minister said that the government is giving huge amount of subsidy to agriculture for food security. Subsidies of this magnitude are rare worldwide. Bangladesh government is giving much more subsidy than other countries. This subsidy will be continued in the future.
He said that the Bangladesh government has taken a huge integrated program to transform the agri-food system. The implementation of Tk 7200 crore partner project has started for increasing agricultural production, modernizing marketing system, developing climate tolerant agriculture and processing agricultural products. Assistance is also being sought from FAO.
Abdur Razzak said that the current government under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has implemented the election promises. The bottomless country now ranks among the developed world. The world now considers Bangladesh as a role model. Agriculture has a great contribution in this regard.
The Agriculture Minister also said that it is necessary to implement the five-point recommendations presented by the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, to ensure the food security of every person by transforming the world’s agri-food system.
Bangladesh delegation member Agriculture Secretary Wahida Akhter, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council Executive Chairman Sheikh Md. Bakhtiar, Director General of Rice Research Institute Shahjahan Kabir, Director General of Agricultural Research Institute Debashish Sarkar and Director General of Atomic Agriculture Research Institute Mirza Mofazzal Islam etc.
During the session, it was informed that in 2021, 70-88 million people worldwide suffered from hunger. In 2030, 67 million people will face hunger or starvation. In such circumstances, agri-food system transformation will act as a key driver in achieving the 17 SDG targets by 2030.
