Agriculture experts and officials at a seminar here put emphasis on more investment for agriculture and food production for strengthening food security as 41 percent of country’s total area is exposed to climate change vulnerability.
More investment in research, farm mechanization and extension is needed by the public and private sector to keep the country’s food security unaffected under the ever changing impact of natural calamities, they said.
The national seminar on ‘Climate is changing …Food and Agriculture must too’ was organized by the Agriculture Ministry and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations marking the World Food Day in the auditorium of Bangladesh Agriculture Research Council (BARC) here on Monday.
As country’s 41 per cent area is under climate change risk, excessive investment needs to be made to strengthen research, education and extension system along with livelihood diversification extending technology, credit and training support to rural farm and non-farm activities to maintain food security, said M A Sattar Mandal, former vice-chancellor of Bangladesh Agricultural University, in the keynote paper.
Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith spoke at the seminar as the chief guest while Agriculture Minister Begum Matia Chowdhruy, Food Minister Advocate Quamrul Islam spoke as the special guests.
Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture Mokbul Hossen MP and FAO representative in Bangladesh Mike Robson were the guests of honour.
Referring to country’s highest record of rice production, Muhith told the seminar that although after the war of independence, country’s food production was only 1.10 crore tones, now it has mounted to three times more to 3.80 crore tonnes due to use of technology in agriculture despite shrinking of agricultural land.
