Economic Reporter :
Experts at a seminar on Wednesday called for more investment in food safety to ensure food security as well as rural development.
They also demanded taking necessary initiatives for amending the Food Safety Act 2013 to prevent food adulteration.
Bangladesh Safe Agro Food Efforts (BSAFE) Foundation, KHANI Food Security Network, Brot fur die welt and Unnayan Dhara jointly organised the seminar on investment in food safety system for food security and rural development at the Jatiya Press Club in the city marking the World Food Day on Wednesday.
The other demands include passage of the ‘Food Security Act 2016’ drafted by the Law Commission and taking steps to implement the law, investing more in agricultural research sector for increasing the initiatives of organic farming research, establishing a government standard control research institute like BSTI to control the quality of food and providing subsidy for ensuring the availability of environment-friendly agricultural tools, climate-tolerant agricultural technology or organic fertiliser and taking proper steps so that real farmers can get the subsidy.
In his keynote paper, Unnayan Dhara Executive Director Shahidul Islam said though Bangladesh has achieved food autarky, ensuring safe and nutritious food which is prerequisite for food security is still a great challenge.
“At present, around 43 lakh tonnes of chemical fertiliser and 48,000 tonnes of chemical pesticides are being used in food production which is poisoning the food,” he said.
Besides, different types of pesticides are being mixed with the food in different stages of food storage, processing, packaging, marketing and distribution, he added.
Experts at a seminar on Wednesday called for more investment in food safety to ensure food security as well as rural development.
They also demanded taking necessary initiatives for amending the Food Safety Act 2013 to prevent food adulteration.
Bangladesh Safe Agro Food Efforts (BSAFE) Foundation, KHANI Food Security Network, Brot fur die welt and Unnayan Dhara jointly organised the seminar on investment in food safety system for food security and rural development at the Jatiya Press Club in the city marking the World Food Day on Wednesday.
The other demands include passage of the ‘Food Security Act 2016’ drafted by the Law Commission and taking steps to implement the law, investing more in agricultural research sector for increasing the initiatives of organic farming research, establishing a government standard control research institute like BSTI to control the quality of food and providing subsidy for ensuring the availability of environment-friendly agricultural tools, climate-tolerant agricultural technology or organic fertiliser and taking proper steps so that real farmers can get the subsidy.
In his keynote paper, Unnayan Dhara Executive Director Shahidul Islam said though Bangladesh has achieved food autarky, ensuring safe and nutritious food which is prerequisite for food security is still a great challenge.
“At present, around 43 lakh tonnes of chemical fertiliser and 48,000 tonnes of chemical pesticides are being used in food production which is poisoning the food,” he said.
Besides, different types of pesticides are being mixed with the food in different stages of food storage, processing, packaging, marketing and distribution, he added.
