Motia for strong democracy to ensure food security
Thursday, 26 February 2009
Agriculture Minister Motia Chowdhury Wednesday called for strengthening democracy to ensure food security and sustainable livelihood for people, reports BSS.
Only democracy could relieve the people of existing discomforts and ensure sustainable livelihood and food security for them, the Agriculture Minister said while speaking at the inaugural function of the two-day national workshop and agriculture fair at Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre in the city Wednesday.
Referring to irregularities, including land grabbing, during the last political government and the two-year rule of the caretaker administration, the agriculture minister said it was proved wrong in the last two years that politics was the root of all vices.
"Look into those, who have become owners of land and apartments in large numbers, it would be clear what happened in the last two years," she added.
The Agriculture Ministry, the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), the Action Aid Bangladesh, the CARE and the Practical Action Bangladesh have jointly organised the workshop on "Innovation in Food Security and Sustainable Livelihood," a four-year project is funded by the European Commission (EC).
The project aims at improving food security and sustainable livelihood of the agriculture dependent poor households in Bangladesh by adapting and implementing appropriate technical, social and organisational improvement in their farming practices.
The workshop coincides with the Agriculture Fair 2009 where agriculture institutions, private seed and fertiliser companies, and NGOs have set up 56 stalls.
The objectives of the programme are to showcase the achievements in technological, social and institutional innovations in food security and livelihood improvement, and to make recommendations for scaling up best practices, organisers said.
Chaired by IRRI Representative in Bangladesh Dr M Zainul Abedin, the inaugural function was also addressed by Milko Van Gool, Head of Cooperation and EC Delegation to Bangladesh and IRRI Deputy Director General Dr Achim Dobermann as the special guests. Dr M Zainul Abedian presented a keynote paper.
The agriculture minister said food security and sustainable livelihood are closely related. No civilisation can exist if food security is not supported by sustainable livelihood, she added.
She stressed the need for proper implementation of all projects and urged all concerned to find out the "missing links" why the impact of a project does not exist after its completion.
Only a few families are benefited from a project and common people go "back to square one" when a project ends, she added.
Referring to the role of women in ensuring food security and sustainable livelihood, she said the last Awami League government had played a big role in women empowerment by introducing the direct voting system for women representatives in union councils, the lowest tier of the local government.
Besides ensuring food security, kilo-calorie intake by the people must be enhanced, she said adding that the last AL government was able to increase it during the period from 1996 to 2006.
Motia said the use of the modern technology in agriculture would be ensured with update information.
Referring to environmental hazards faced by the country, she said the country is going towards desertification with most rivers and canals drying up. Excessive withdrawal of underground water is causing degradation to environment, she added.
The agriculture fair displaying seeds and fertilisers, agriculture technologies and products will remain open for all from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm until today (Thursday).
Only democracy could relieve the people of existing discomforts and ensure sustainable livelihood and food security for them, the Agriculture Minister said while speaking at the inaugural function of the two-day national workshop and agriculture fair at Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre in the city Wednesday.
Referring to irregularities, including land grabbing, during the last political government and the two-year rule of the caretaker administration, the agriculture minister said it was proved wrong in the last two years that politics was the root of all vices.
"Look into those, who have become owners of land and apartments in large numbers, it would be clear what happened in the last two years," she added.
The Agriculture Ministry, the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), the Action Aid Bangladesh, the CARE and the Practical Action Bangladesh have jointly organised the workshop on "Innovation in Food Security and Sustainable Livelihood," a four-year project is funded by the European Commission (EC).
The project aims at improving food security and sustainable livelihood of the agriculture dependent poor households in Bangladesh by adapting and implementing appropriate technical, social and organisational improvement in their farming practices.
The workshop coincides with the Agriculture Fair 2009 where agriculture institutions, private seed and fertiliser companies, and NGOs have set up 56 stalls.
The objectives of the programme are to showcase the achievements in technological, social and institutional innovations in food security and livelihood improvement, and to make recommendations for scaling up best practices, organisers said.
Chaired by IRRI Representative in Bangladesh Dr M Zainul Abedin, the inaugural function was also addressed by Milko Van Gool, Head of Cooperation and EC Delegation to Bangladesh and IRRI Deputy Director General Dr Achim Dobermann as the special guests. Dr M Zainul Abedian presented a keynote paper.
The agriculture minister said food security and sustainable livelihood are closely related. No civilisation can exist if food security is not supported by sustainable livelihood, she added.
She stressed the need for proper implementation of all projects and urged all concerned to find out the "missing links" why the impact of a project does not exist after its completion.
Only a few families are benefited from a project and common people go "back to square one" when a project ends, she added.
Referring to the role of women in ensuring food security and sustainable livelihood, she said the last Awami League government had played a big role in women empowerment by introducing the direct voting system for women representatives in union councils, the lowest tier of the local government.
Besides ensuring food security, kilo-calorie intake by the people must be enhanced, she said adding that the last AL government was able to increase it during the period from 1996 to 2006.
Motia said the use of the modern technology in agriculture would be ensured with update information.
Referring to environmental hazards faced by the country, she said the country is going towards desertification with most rivers and canals drying up. Excessive withdrawal of underground water is causing degradation to environment, she added.
The agriculture fair displaying seeds and fertilisers, agriculture technologies and products will remain open for all from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm until today (Thursday).