Motia confident of attaining self-sufficiency in food
Thursday, 27 May 2010
Agriculture Minister Motia Chowdhury has expressed satisfaction with the way Bangladesh has progressed in agriculture since attaining independence.
Motia pointed out that food production has tripled from 10 million tonnes to 30 million tonnes over the last 3 decades, and that has ensured food security in terms of food availability, reports UNB.
"Now, we are confident that we will be able to feed the people of the country under normal climatic conditions without any assistance from outside," she said while addressing the inaugural ceremony of the two-day Bangladesh Food Security Investment Forum at a city hotel Wednesday.
Food Division of Food and Disaster Management Ministry organised the programme in collaboration with International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) with financial assistance from USAID, DFID and EU.
Motia added: "We assure you (development partners) of the best use of your assistance if we are allowed to implement our programmes in a condition-free environment".
The Minister said that availability becomes a challenge to a greater extent during the years when the country faces natural calamities mainly caused by climate change.
"Besides availability, at this moment, there is an urgency to ensure other elements of food security, such as access and nutrition," she said.
Motia said: "We have learned from our experiences that without attaining self-sufficiency in food, donor-dependent strategies for ensuring food security may lead to further insecurity and vulnerabilities."
She mentioned that against the backdrop of declining arable land at the rate of one per cent per year, the country has progressed well in feeding its large population with agricultural produce from a limited area.
"We have also taken initiatives to ensure fair prices for the agricultural produce and access to food for a large number of poor people. We feel that diversification in agricultural cropping system will also ensure the nutrition challenge for the people."
She said that in order to increase production as well as to reduce costs, the government has emphasised extensive use of surface water.
"In order to maintain the rivers and canals as the main sources of fresh and running water, we will have to continue dredging of the rivers which will also help in an expansion of irrigation coverage."
She said that the government is planning to use solar energy to keep irrigation pumps running.
USAID administrator Rajiv Shah, FAO assistant director general and regional representative for Asia and Pacific Hiroyuki Konuma, UN special representative for food security and nutrition David Nabarro, IFPRI DG Shenggen Fan, BIDS DG MK Mujeri and Food Division secretary Barun Dev Mitra also spoke at the inaugural ceremony.
Motia pointed out that food production has tripled from 10 million tonnes to 30 million tonnes over the last 3 decades, and that has ensured food security in terms of food availability, reports UNB.
"Now, we are confident that we will be able to feed the people of the country under normal climatic conditions without any assistance from outside," she said while addressing the inaugural ceremony of the two-day Bangladesh Food Security Investment Forum at a city hotel Wednesday.
Food Division of Food and Disaster Management Ministry organised the programme in collaboration with International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) with financial assistance from USAID, DFID and EU.
Motia added: "We assure you (development partners) of the best use of your assistance if we are allowed to implement our programmes in a condition-free environment".
The Minister said that availability becomes a challenge to a greater extent during the years when the country faces natural calamities mainly caused by climate change.
"Besides availability, at this moment, there is an urgency to ensure other elements of food security, such as access and nutrition," she said.
Motia said: "We have learned from our experiences that without attaining self-sufficiency in food, donor-dependent strategies for ensuring food security may lead to further insecurity and vulnerabilities."
She mentioned that against the backdrop of declining arable land at the rate of one per cent per year, the country has progressed well in feeding its large population with agricultural produce from a limited area.
"We have also taken initiatives to ensure fair prices for the agricultural produce and access to food for a large number of poor people. We feel that diversification in agricultural cropping system will also ensure the nutrition challenge for the people."
She said that in order to increase production as well as to reduce costs, the government has emphasised extensive use of surface water.
"In order to maintain the rivers and canals as the main sources of fresh and running water, we will have to continue dredging of the rivers which will also help in an expansion of irrigation coverage."
She said that the government is planning to use solar energy to keep irrigation pumps running.
USAID administrator Rajiv Shah, FAO assistant director general and regional representative for Asia and Pacific Hiroyuki Konuma, UN special representative for food security and nutrition David Nabarro, IFPRI DG Shenggen Fan, BIDS DG MK Mujeri and Food Division secretary Barun Dev Mitra also spoke at the inaugural ceremony.