Atiur asks banks to invest in natural cold storage construction

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BSS, Rajshahi :
Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr Atiur Rahman has urged both the public and private commercial banks to invest in establishing more natural cold storages for creating preservation facilities for the perishable crops.
He said farmers of the country incur huge financial loss every year due to lack of preservation facilities for their produces, especially vegetables and fruits and the matter is also harmful for the country’s economy.
But time has come to overcome the odd situation after best uses of the modern knowledge and technologies and hence, the banks should come forward positive way in this regard, he added.
Dr Atiur made this observation while addressing the opening session of a natural cold storage at Chalkpara in the city today as chief guest. The storage was established with financial support from Corporate Social Responsibility programme of Bangladesh Bank.
He termed the initiative for the first time in the country as green innovation and emphasised the need for its replication throughout the country. “We need more such type of initiatives to lessen the gradually increasing power demand besides promoting green technologies substantially,” Dr Atiur added.
He asked all the bank authorities to establish at least one natural cold storage each and said BB will also extend financial support to establish the same simultaneously.
During his introductory speech, Prof Monzur Hossain, a teacher of Department of Botany of Rajshahi University and entrepreneur of the scheme, said the storage has been established totally based on natural resources like bamboo and straw. It will function with air moisture. There will be no use of electricity in the preservation process, he added.
Narrating different other salient features, he said the storage has preservation capacity of around 300 metric tons of various seasonal vegetables and spicy crops like onion, garlic, turmeric, ginger and chili. The small farmers will be benefited by keeping their produces in the storage, he further said.
With Zinnatul Bakeya, Executive Director of BB, in the chair, Pro Vice-chancellor of Rajshahi University Prof Dr Chowdhury Sarwar Jahan, Deputy Commissioner of Rajshahi Mejbah Uddin Chowdhury, Managing Director of Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank Monzur Ahmed, Managing Director of Al Arafa Islami Bank Limited Habibur Rahman and Executive Director of BB Mahfuzur Rahman also spoke.
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