Legitimate rights of the prominent farmers and others concerned should be protected rightly for the sake of encouraging them towards boosting agricultural productions to meet up its gradually rising demands, speakers at a discussion in Rajshahi said.
Referring to their enormous contribution to the country's agricultural development they unanimously said the farmers deserve the rights of getting all requisite privileges. There is no alternative to protect their interests as a whole.
They came up with the observation while addressing a daylong farmers gathering held at Gubirpara village under Tanore upazila in the district on Sunday.
Bangladesh Resource Centre for Indigenous Knowledge (BARCIK), a rights- based development organization, hosted the programme in observance of the World Food Day-2021. More than 300 farmers both male and female from various areas in the vast Barind tract attended the meeting.
National award winning farmers Yousuf Ali Mollah and Nur Muhammad addressed the meeting as focal persons saying the present government is very much positive towards protecting the legitimate rights of the farmers.
Upazila Youth Development Officer Abdul Ahad, social activists Shima Khatun and Somrat Raihan also spoke.
During his keynote presentation, Shahidul Islam, Regional Coordinator of BARCIK, puts forward a demand of initiating pension scheme for the sixty plus farmers for their food security.
Read More: Six new items gain GI status
In the wake of abnormal declining natural resources like native crop seeds, fish and bird species and other wildlife, conservation of natural resources has become indispensable for facing the adverse impacts of climate change.
The development activist opined that many native crops and vegetable varieties are gradually declining. Many of the native fish species, particularly the small indigenous ones, are on the verge of extinction due to various reasons.
Importance should be given to capacity building to address climate change in the region with special reference to conservation of drought tolerant species.