Staff Reporter :
Different international organizations, including the World Bank (WB) and the World Food Programme (WFP), have warned of a food crisis across the globe.
Considering the forecast of international organizations regarding food crisis, Bangladesh is also taking preparation to tackle fear of food crisis for the future.
Agriculture Minister MA Razzaque came up with this while talking to the reporters after a courtesy call with Canadian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Lilly Nicholls at the Secretariat on Thursday.
Expressing his concern, the Agriculture Minister said, “Everyone is fearing for a major food crisis due to the corona virus pandemic and for the ongoing Ukraine-Russia war. Meanwhile, the World Bank, the World Food Program and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) have said there could be a catastrophic food crisis in the world.”
Media publishing various complications with food crisis in European countries, he said adding that since Canada is also a very important partner of Bangladesh in agricultural sector and they provide Bangladesh food grains, which are discussed with the Canadian High Commissioner.
“The Canadian High Commissioner assured us that in case of any food crisis in Bangladesh they will take the issue under special consideration of providing food grains. The Canadian High Commissioner also said that of course Bangladesh will be able to import food grains from Canada with special consideration,” Razzaque said in reply to a query.
A new dimension has been created in the relations between Bangladesh and Canada during the rule of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the Agriculture Minister said and added, “We import a lot of agricultural products from Canada. Especially lentils and wheat are imported from that country. Besides, very important agricultural inputs are also imported from Canada.”
There are three main types of fertilizers-potassium, urea (nitrogen) and phosphorus are used in country’s agricultural sector, Razzaque said.
Only three countries of the world Belarus, Russia and Canada have supplied Potassium to the global market.
“We have imported these fertilizers from Canada on G2G basis and they supplied a good amount of fertilizer every year,” he added. Potassium is very important for potato cultivation and uncertainty looms over getting this fertliser for the next potato season as the whole countries including Bangladesh won’t able to import potassium from Russia and Belarus due to embargo imposed by European and Western countries for Ukrain-Russia war.
Now every country is depending on Canada and Bangladesh is trying to import the fertilizer (potassium) from Canada, the Agriculture Minister said.
Asked if talking about the food crisis would spread panic, Razzaque said, “I am not talking about the food crisis. The WB, the World Health Organization and the World Food Organization are talking about it.”
He, however, said Bangladesh is not in a state of crisis as there are good crops in the field.
There happened little damage in haor areas as more than 90 percent of paddy in haor areas have been harvested, the Agriculture minister said and added small natural disasters happen all the time.
