PM stresses maximum land usage for food production

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday urged the countrymen to ensure maximum usage of land to produce food to maintain self-sufficiency against the backdrop of the global crisis over the Ukraine conflict, reports BSS.

"After two waves of Covid-19 pandemic, now the Russia-Ukrain war may expose the world to another crisis," premier's press secretary Ihsanul Karim quoted her as saying at a meeting of PMO officials at her office.

Sheikh Hasina said Bangladesh needs to prepare itself for any such crisis, developing its own arrangement to evade any possible food crisis and "that is why no inch of land should be left uncultivated".

"We have to produce (food) whatever we can," she said during the meeting, which Karim said lasted for nearly three and a half hours.

The premier said all citizens of the country should produce something whatever land they possessed to meet their own food demands and help the country remain self-reliant in food production.

"We all should remain alert so that the country is not faced with any hardship due to the world crisis," she said.

Sheikh Hasina asked all concerned to disseminate her message that "no inch of land would remain uncultivated".

The premier's economic affairs adviser Dr Mashiur Rahman, energy affairs adviser Dr Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury, private Industry and investment adviser Salman F Rahman, ambassador-at-large Mohammad Ziauddin, principal coordinator of SDG affairs Zuena Aziz and the press secretary, among others, also spoke at the meeting.

The premier's principal secretary Dr. Ahmad Kaikaus conducted the meeting, while PMO's senior secretary Md. Tofazzel Hossain Miah made a presentation on her activities in the last three years.

Talking about the price spiral, the Prime Minister said that it has happened in the whole world and that also impacted on Bangladesh.

"What we can do now, we have to encourage the people not to left behind one inch of arable land," she said, adding that "It means we have to be self-sufficient in food production for all time."

In this connection, she said that at the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic she apprehended that the world might face a food crisis.

"That is why from that time I encouraged people to utilise their every inch of arable land," she said.

Sheikh Hasina said she apprehended that there might be another blow coming for the whole world combining Coronavirus and Russia-Ukraine war. "So we have to take care of ourselves (in food production)," she said.

But, she noted that the problem for Bangladesh is the items that imported from international market. In this connection she mentioned about LNG and fuel oil.

She asked the officials to think about the outcomes of the price hike of these items and take appropriate measures regarding the matter.

"We have to find out the alternatives of these right now to secure the livelihoods of the people of the country," she said.