Bangladesh has achieved self-sufficiency in food production, and it is envisaged that if the country can keep the momentum of its efficacy in food production, it will play a key role in achieving five targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) such as zero hunger, good health and wellbeing, sustainable cities and communities, responsible consumption and production, and life below water. Therefore, it is very important for the government and authorities concerned to continue their concerted efforts to sustain the momentum of the country’s food production.
We are an agriculture-based country where the contribution of this sector to our economy and the livelihood is immense. As a consequence of apt and sustainable initiatives implemented by the government, agricultural sector of the country has gone through a revolution in the last decade.
The incumbent government’s unremitting endeavour to bring every village under electricity coverage has brought about significant changes in the agricultural activities.
Farmers now get low-cost power-run irrigation facilities using their improved irrigation pumps. Reportedly, farmers get 20 percent government subsidy on the bills for consumption of electricity being provided by PBS to operate their pumps for enhancing food production at reduced costs to ensure national food security.
We are gradually moving towards
commercialisation of our agriculture sector,
but we do not have proper infrastructure
in place for
facilitating this transition
We are gradually moving towards commercialisation of our agriculture sector, but we do not have proper infrastructure in place for facilitating this transition. We have no dedicated transportation facility for this sector. Now what is needed is to ensure improved rural infrastructure so that farmers are able to reap the full benefit of their produces. Improved rural roads will make the movement of the produce easier from the farm to the market. Our storage facility is also very poor. We have a very limited number of cold storage only for the preservation of potatoes. Hitherto, our post-harvesting technology is not up to the mark poor.
Being self-sufficient in food production is indeed a great achievement for a country of 17 million people where more than 1252 people live per square kilometre. We have tripled our rice production over the last few decades. We have seen substantial growth in agro-production, we have invented high-yield crops and consequently all the sub-sectors including fisheries, animal farming and processed agro-food have underscored remarkable growth that indicates a sustainable food system.
Prudent measures are therefore necessary so that the current state of food production can be sustained as well as increased. In order to make our production growth sustainable we need to adopt advanced technologies in the agriculture sector. Hence, we need to invest a lot in research and development of new technologies, and the public and private sector should work together in this regard.