http://www.newagebd.com/2008/apr/10/front.html#e3
New Age, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Thursday, April 10, 2008
'Food crisis' to get permanent if agri-sector is neglected:
roundtable
United News of Bangladesh . Dhaka
Advisers to the military-controlled interim government, former
agriculture ministers and economists have said Bangladesh would never
be able to get rid of 'food crisis' if it continues to neglect the
agriculture sector in the name of industrialisation.
Addressing a roundtable, they said without proper management of the
agriculture sector and its modernisation, Bangladesh was unlikely to
be able to ensure adequate food supply for the country's people of
which 40 per cent were still living under the poverty line.
'We must understand that nobody is going to help us tackle the food
crisis. We'll have to find out a solution to our problem. And return
to the agro-based economy is the only way-out,' the agriculture
adviser, CS Karim, told the roundtable.
The roundtable titled 'Food Security and Modernisation of
Agriculture' was arranged by Weekly 2000 and Brac at Brac Inn Centre
in Dhaka Wednesday morning.
Moderated by the Brac executive director, Mahbub Hossain, the
roundtable was attended, among others, by the commerce adviser,
Hossain Zillur Rahman, former agriculture ministers Matia Chowdhury
and MK Anwar.
CS Karim laid emphasis on public-private partner****p for the
modernisation of agriculture in Bangladesh.
He said from now on the country's universities, government and non-
government institutions must increase research works aiming to give a
further boost to farm output.
The adviser appreciated the past governments for development of
infrastructures in the agriculture sectors, but voiced concern over
the rapid shrinking of croplands in the country and called for
measures to check it.
The commerce adviser said the agriculture had to be retaken in the
focal point of the country's economy. 'We've been neglecting the
agriculture since the 80s although it's the backbone of our economy.
Such negligence must be stopped right now,' he said.
Former agriculture minister MK Anwar said the present food crisis
was nothing but the consequence of a severe negligence of the
agriculture sector.
Another former agriculture minister, Matia Chowdhury, also called
upon for all-out efforts for bringing back dynamism into the
agricultural sector.
He blamed the present government's lack of farsightedness for the
present food crisis. 'The government attributes the present food
crisis to the last floods and Sidr. We had also faced a prolonged
flood in 1998, but there was no food crisis,' Matia said.
She said the present government had lack of practical knowledge
about Bangladesh's agriculture and its management.
Economist Mahbub Hossain said it seems that the price of rice on
the global market is not going to come down in the next few years.
'So, boosting our domestic agricultural production is the only way-out
of the food crisis,' he added.
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