The alliance of eight developing countries or D-8 has agreed to Bangladesh's proposal to take up a ‘Multinational Integrated Project’ for the development of climate-smart agricultural technology.
Through this joint research, innovation, development and expansion of advanced agricultural technologies will be carried out in these D-8 countries to address the effects of climate change. The project will be implemented and managed with financial and technical assistance from various international donor agencies such as IDB, FAO, ERI, IFAD etc. Work on the project will begin soon.
On the last day of a two-day virtual meeting of the 7th D-8 Ministerial Conference on Agriculture and Food Security organized by the Ministry of Agriculture at the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC) on Thursday, the Agriculture Ministers of eight countries agreed on this and approved the Dhaka Initiative.
The meeting was chaired by the Minister of Agriculture Dr Md Abdur Razzque. He said that the agricultural production system would be most affected by climate change in the world. In order to sustain agricultural production and food security in the future, innovation and expansion of climate change tolerant crop varieties and technologies must be increased.
Dr. Razzak further said, “Development of climate-smart agricultural technology is very important in D-8 countries. In the face of global warming and climate change, it will play a role in ensuring food and nutrition security and improving the quality of life of the people. In addition, 60 percent of the people in the Alliance live in rural areas and are largely dependent on agriculture. Therefore, today's Dhaka Initiative Climate Smart Agricultural Technology innovation, exchange will play an important role in food production and food security.”
The meeting was attended by D-7 Secretary-General Isiaka Abdul Qadir Imam, Indonesian Minister of Agriculture Sayarul Yasin Limpu, Iranian Minister of Agriculture Syed JS Nejad, Malaysian Minister of Agriculture and Food Ronald Kyandi, Pakistani Federal Minister Syed Fakhar Imam, Turkey's Deputy Minister of Environment and Forests Akif Ozkaldi, Nigeria's Federal Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development Md. Mahmoud Abubakar, and Shirin Asem of the ARC in Egypt spoke about the challenges, possibilities, actions and increasing cooperation on climate change in agriculture. Members of the Bangladesh delegation at the meeting were agriculture ministry secretary Md. Saidul Islam, Additional Secretary Md. Ruhul Amin Talukder, BARC Executive Chairman Sheikh Md. Bakhtiyar, Representatives from FAO, Islamic Development Bank, IFAD, IRRI and others also participated.
