While speaking at Bangladesh Seed Congress in the capital on Saturday Agriculture Minister Dr. Muhammad AbdurRazzaque said the government will continue ongoing subsidies in the agriculture sector to ensure food security. He said the prices of all agriculture-related products including fertilizers have increased drastically in the global market. Still, the price of fertilizers has not increased by a single penny in the country due to the subsidy given by the government.
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. Bangladesh has achieved self-sufficiency in food production. 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.
Prudent measures
are therefore necessary
so that the current
state of food production can be
sustained as well as increased
It is apprehended 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. Hence, 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.
It is good to note that the government has embarked on a plan to boost country’s rice production each year gradually by bringing more lands under high yielding paddy cultivation. In this regard, all concerned including scientists, researchers and agriculture officials should put forth their concerted efforts to boost paddy yield to feed the gradually increasing population of the country.
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.
However, 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.