Address by Dr. Muhammad Abdur Razzaque, Honourable Minister, Ministry of Food and Disaster Management Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh
Fadama Crop Farming Enterprise and Poverty Alleviation in Kogi State, NigeriaAI Publications
Poverty is an affront to the existence of mankind, which must be fought from all angles. This study examines the impact of Fadama crop farming enterprise on poverty alleviation in Kogi State. Questionnaires were administered to 180 households, 90 each to Fadama crop farming and Non-Fadama farming households in the area. Data was analyzed using the relative poverty index and the logit regression model. The relative poverty index using the so-called P.alpha shows that the non-Fadama farming households had higher values of the various dimensions of the incidence of poverty, P0, P1, and P2, than the Fadama crop farming households while the logit regression analysis with the aid of the SPSS packages revealed that five of the nine variables, namely; farm size, household size, annual income, total expenditure and age of the household heads, were statistically significant at 5% level. The study has identified Fadama crop farming enterprise as a means of economic development and poverty alleviation and therefore recommends the development and proper management of the vast Fadama resources and potential in Kogi State and Nigeria at large, the enhancement of the income base of the Fadama crop farmers through governments’ deliberate policies/programmes, the provision/subsidization of Fadama farming inputs as well as education/public enlightenment of the Fadama crop farmers. Finally, suggestions for further studies on the impact of Fadama farming generally on poverty alleviation and the role of other enterprises such as the small scale industries/businesses on poverty alleviation in the study area were proffered.
Food safety and food security is a determinant of the well-being of the citizens of a country and how it translates to the development and transformation of the economy in a country specifically Nigeria was critically examined. Recent FAO figures indicate that over 60% of the world undernourished people live in Asia, and a quarter in Africa. Also there are 22 countries, 16 of which are in Africa, in which the undernourishment prevalence rate is over 35%. Hunger, food insecurity (chronic or transitory), malnutrition involving micronutrient malnutrition (MNM) and protein energy malnutrition (PEM) are some of the issues arising from food insecurity. Lack or absence of minerals and vitamins like Iodine, Iron and Vitamin A affects the growth and development of humans. The study revealed that several factors contributing to food insecurity includes wars, natural disasters, unemployment inadequate technological deployment and high post-harvest losses. Steps were taken to examine how agriculture contributes to food security, effects of various policies by past and present government on the food security and food safety situation in Nigeria. Also the emerging issue in combating food insecurity especially the use of biotechnology was further explained. Useful recommendations for enhancement of food security and safety includes: reduction of post-harvest losses through proper utilisation, processing and packaging of agricultural products, food fortification and supplementation to combat micronutrient and protein energy malnutrition, increased use of biotechnology; formulation of good agricultural policies including creation of agric cooperatives and the new Nigerian Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) that can lead to transformation of the economy.
The Year in Review describes WFP’s actions and achievements in serving people’s emergency, recovery and development needs in 2015. It covers WFP’s provision of vital, common platforms and services for the humanitarian and development community.
Towards a Zero Hunger, Nourish the Future Pledge for the Private SectorCesar Henrique Arrais
Presentation given by Dr. Lawrence Haddad, Executive Director, GAIN & Chair, Action Track 1, UN FSS, as part of the UN Pre-Summit on Food Systems, affiliated session "Towards a Zero Hunger, Nourish the Future Pledge For the Private Sector."
GOOD NUTRITION IS THE BEDROCK OF HUMAN WELL-BEING. BEFORE BIRTH AND THROUGHOUT INFANCY, GOOD NUTRITION ALLOWS BRAIN FUNCTIONING TO evolve without impairment and immune systems to develop more robustly. For young children, good nutrition status averts death and equips the body to grow and develop to its full potential. Over the course of the human lifespan, it leads to more effective learning at school, better-nourished mothers who give birth to better-nourished children, and adults who are likelier to be productive and earn higher wages. In middle age, it gives people metabolisms that are better prepared to ward off the diseases associated with changes in diet and physical activity. Without good nutrition, people’s lives and livelihoods are built on quicksand.
Special Edition: Africa Renewal; Agriculture is Africa’s next frontier, 2014Africa Cheetah Run
This special edition looks at the many challenges and opportunities facing Africa’s agriculture – from land issues, to investments and innovations inspired by information technology, to the important role played by women in fighting hunger and malnutrition. It mixes new and updated stories that have been previously published in Africa Renewal over the past few years.
Fadama Crop Farming Enterprise and Poverty Alleviation in Kogi State, NigeriaAI Publications
Poverty is an affront to the existence of mankind, which must be fought from all angles. This study examines the impact of Fadama crop farming enterprise on poverty alleviation in Kogi State. Questionnaires were administered to 180 households, 90 each to Fadama crop farming and Non-Fadama farming households in the area. Data was analyzed using the relative poverty index and the logit regression model. The relative poverty index using the so-called P.alpha shows that the non-Fadama farming households had higher values of the various dimensions of the incidence of poverty, P0, P1, and P2, than the Fadama crop farming households while the logit regression analysis with the aid of the SPSS packages revealed that five of the nine variables, namely; farm size, household size, annual income, total expenditure and age of the household heads, were statistically significant at 5% level. The study has identified Fadama crop farming enterprise as a means of economic development and poverty alleviation and therefore recommends the development and proper management of the vast Fadama resources and potential in Kogi State and Nigeria at large, the enhancement of the income base of the Fadama crop farmers through governments’ deliberate policies/programmes, the provision/subsidization of Fadama farming inputs as well as education/public enlightenment of the Fadama crop farmers. Finally, suggestions for further studies on the impact of Fadama farming generally on poverty alleviation and the role of other enterprises such as the small scale industries/businesses on poverty alleviation in the study area were proffered.
Food safety and food security is a determinant of the well-being of the citizens of a country and how it translates to the development and transformation of the economy in a country specifically Nigeria was critically examined. Recent FAO figures indicate that over 60% of the world undernourished people live in Asia, and a quarter in Africa. Also there are 22 countries, 16 of which are in Africa, in which the undernourishment prevalence rate is over 35%. Hunger, food insecurity (chronic or transitory), malnutrition involving micronutrient malnutrition (MNM) and protein energy malnutrition (PEM) are some of the issues arising from food insecurity. Lack or absence of minerals and vitamins like Iodine, Iron and Vitamin A affects the growth and development of humans. The study revealed that several factors contributing to food insecurity includes wars, natural disasters, unemployment inadequate technological deployment and high post-harvest losses. Steps were taken to examine how agriculture contributes to food security, effects of various policies by past and present government on the food security and food safety situation in Nigeria. Also the emerging issue in combating food insecurity especially the use of biotechnology was further explained. Useful recommendations for enhancement of food security and safety includes: reduction of post-harvest losses through proper utilisation, processing and packaging of agricultural products, food fortification and supplementation to combat micronutrient and protein energy malnutrition, increased use of biotechnology; formulation of good agricultural policies including creation of agric cooperatives and the new Nigerian Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) that can lead to transformation of the economy.
The Year in Review describes WFP’s actions and achievements in serving people’s emergency, recovery and development needs in 2015. It covers WFP’s provision of vital, common platforms and services for the humanitarian and development community.
Towards a Zero Hunger, Nourish the Future Pledge for the Private SectorCesar Henrique Arrais
Presentation given by Dr. Lawrence Haddad, Executive Director, GAIN & Chair, Action Track 1, UN FSS, as part of the UN Pre-Summit on Food Systems, affiliated session "Towards a Zero Hunger, Nourish the Future Pledge For the Private Sector."
GOOD NUTRITION IS THE BEDROCK OF HUMAN WELL-BEING. BEFORE BIRTH AND THROUGHOUT INFANCY, GOOD NUTRITION ALLOWS BRAIN FUNCTIONING TO evolve without impairment and immune systems to develop more robustly. For young children, good nutrition status averts death and equips the body to grow and develop to its full potential. Over the course of the human lifespan, it leads to more effective learning at school, better-nourished mothers who give birth to better-nourished children, and adults who are likelier to be productive and earn higher wages. In middle age, it gives people metabolisms that are better prepared to ward off the diseases associated with changes in diet and physical activity. Without good nutrition, people’s lives and livelihoods are built on quicksand.
Special Edition: Africa Renewal; Agriculture is Africa’s next frontier, 2014Africa Cheetah Run
This special edition looks at the many challenges and opportunities facing Africa’s agriculture – from land issues, to investments and innovations inspired by information technology, to the important role played by women in fighting hunger and malnutrition. It mixes new and updated stories that have been previously published in Africa Renewal over the past few years.
Special Edition: Africa Renewal; Agriculture is Africa’s next frontier, 2014
Similar to Address by Dr. Muhammad Abdur Razzaque, Honourable Minister, Ministry of Food and Disaster Management Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh
A short presentation to accompany a lesson on global food and water security. Blog post with more information about the lesson can be found on eternalexploration.wordpress.com
By 2050 the world’s population will reach 9.1 billion, 34 percent higher than today. Nearly all of this population increase will occur in developing countries. Urbanization will continue at an accelerated pace, and about 70 percent of the world’s population will be urban (compared to 49 percent today). Income levels will be many multiples of what they are now. In order to feed this larger, more urban and richer population, food production (net of food used for biofuels) must increase by 70 percent.
Annual cereal production will need to rise to about 3 billion tonnes from 2.1 billion today and annual meat production will need to rise by over 200 million tonnes to reach 470 million tonnes. This report argues that the required increase in food production can be achieved if the necessary investment is undertaken and policies conducive to agricultural production are put in place.
But increasing production is not sufficient to achieve food security. It must be complemented by policies to enhance access by fighting poverty, especially in rural areas, as well as effective safety net programmes. Total average annual net investment in developing country agriculture required to deliver the necessary production increases would amount to USD 83 billion. The global gap in what is required vis-à-vis current investment levels can be illustrated by comparing the required annual gross investment of US$209 billion (which includes the cost of renewing depreciating investments) with the result of a separate study that estimated that developing countries on average invested USD 142 billion (USD of 2009) annually in agriculture over the past decade.
The required increase is thus about 50 percent. These figures are totals for public and private investment, i.e. investments by farmers. Achieving them will require a major reallocation in developing country budgets as well as in donor programmes. It will also require policies that support farmers in developing countries and encourage them and other private participants in agriculture to increase their investment. In developing countries, 80 percent of the necessary production increases would come from increases in yields and cropping intensity and only 20 percent from expansion of arable land.
But the fact is that globally the rate of growth in yields of the major cereal crops has been steadily declining, it dropped from 3.2 percent per year in 1960 to 1.5 percent in 2000. The challenge for technology is to reverse this decline, since a continuous linear increase in yields at a global level following the pattern established over the past five decades will not be sufficient to meet food needs. Although investment in agricultural R&D continues to be one of the most productive investments, with rates of return between 30 and 75 percent, it has been neglected in most low income countries.
This presentation is all about highlighting present scenario of food security in India and the Issues and challenges it is facing. Furthermore, some of the pragmatic measures have been given so as to make India a food secure nation.
Shahidur Rashid, Senior Research Fellow, IFPRI
Presented at the ReSAKSS-Asia conference “Agriculture and Rural Transformation in Asia: Past Experiences and Future Opportunities”. An international conference jointly organized by ReSAKSS-Asia, IFPRI, TDRI, and TVSEP project of Leibniz Universit Hannover with support from USAID and Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) at the Dusit Thani Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand December 12–14, 2017.
National and global food security, Dr Will Martinfood2050
Dr Will Martin , World Bank speaking about national and global food security: what roles for trade and trade policies? Based on a paper written with Prof Kim Anderson.
Similar to Address by Dr. Muhammad Abdur Razzaque, Honourable Minister, Ministry of Food and Disaster Management Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh (20)
On both a pilot and large-scale basis, Bangladesh has pioneered much of the safety-net approach to food security and has led in planning and developing much of the basis for longterm solutions to food security problems. I was in Professor Nurul Islam’s home for the fateful speech that, in certain respects, marked the inception of the nation, and I have continued to learn from Bangladesh through my friends and many visits over the last four decades. During that time span, the food security of Bangladeshis has increased immensely, but there is more to be done, obviously, and, fortunately, a way to do it.
Food security in general has three basic elements: availability, access, and utilization. The dominant source of food in Bangladesh is domestic production. This paper will examine the availability of food from domestic production in crop agriculture. A companion paper examines issues related to fisheries and livestock development.
In this paper we first provide a brief history of growth in crop agriculture and its characteristics. This is followed by a discussion of the challenges that Bangladesh agriculture will face in future (including climate change) and the key issues that need resolution in order to face these challenges.
The resolution of these challenges will require interventions mediated by the government and involving the private sector, including both policy actions and the necessary investments in relevant areas. These investment needs are elaborated as far as possible in this paper, along with an initial prioritization. We make no attempt to indicate how such investment needs may be realized, their sequence, or how to mobilize them. These are matters for future discussion.
Presentation by B. Minten, A.Z.M. Shafiqul Alam, Uttam K. Dev, A.Z.K. Kabir, D. Laborde, M. Hassanullah and K.A.S. Murshid
Bangladesh Food Security Investment Forum 2010
27 May 2010, Dhaka, Bangladesh
In this paper we first provide a brief history of growth in crop agriculture and its characteristics. This is followed by a discussion of the challenges that Bangladesh agriculture will face in future (including climate change) and the key issues that need resolution in order to face these challenges.
The resolution of these challenges will require interventions mediated by the government and involving the private sector, including both policy actions and the necessary investments in relevant areas. These investment needs are elaborated as far as possible in this paper, along with an initial prioritization. We make no attempt to indicate how such investment needs may be realized, their sequence, or how to mobilize them. These are matters for future discussion.
Social safety nets in Bangladesh have been quite effective in smoothing the consumption and the income of poor households and helping them cope with stresses and shocks. These programs, however, cover only a fraction of the poor, and they must be strengthened if they are to adequately address poverty or mitigate the vulnerability to poverty in a sustainable way. Safety nets will become even more important in Bangladesh as the country faces economic downturn, food price fluctuations, climate change, and other developments that increase the vulnerability of the poor.
The fisheries and livestock sectors are two major pillars of Bangladesh’s economy, and more than 10 million people directly depend on these sectors for their livelihoods. These sectors are also important for food, nutrition, income, export earning, draft power, biofertilizer, and transport. The fisheries
sector is vibrant, contributing to about 20 percent of the agri- cultural GDP, while the livestock sector contribution is around 12 percent. These two sectors provide the major dietary protein. During 1994−2005 the food from animal origin increased from 76 to 113 gm per capita per day. About 63 percent of animal protein supply in the diet of the people of Bangladesh is obtained from fish.
The economic consequences of high maternal and child undernutrition cannot be overstated. A combination of high maternal undernutrition and postnatal factors cause child undernutrition, which in turn can influence children’s school performance and their future occupational choices, and can undermine the future productivity of nations. Notwithstanding rapid economic growth in a number of South Asian countries (including Bangladesh and India), the pace of improvements in maternal and child undernutrition in the region remains deeply unsatisfactory. Bangladesh has made considerable progress in addressing the non-income poverty indicators for the first Millennium Development Goal (MDG1)—that is, reducing the prevalence of underweight children under five years of age—but improvements are slowing, which raises questions about whether the target will be achieved or not. Furthermore, the overall levels of maternal and child undernutrition are still high in Bangladesh, and further investments are needed to accelerate improvements and prevent the negative impact of maternal and child undernutrition on long-term development. This paper is, therefore, about the
policy focus that is needed to greatly improve the current status of maternal and children nutrition. Although overweight and obesity are emerging problems in Bangladesh, this paper will not address this aspect of undernutrition. However, it is a potential concern in the future, and this trend should be monitored.
Achieving food security is high on the agenda of the Government of Bangladesh. In 2006, the government passed a National Food Policy (NFP), which was followed up in 2008 by a Plan of Action (PoA). Governance and gender issues are concerns that cut across the three core objectives and 26 areas of intervention of the Plan of Action, both explicitly and implicitly. This paper aims to address the governance and gender issues that are embedded within the Plan of Acﰂon, by discussing how these two concerns are relevant to the four idenﰂfied priority areas, by poinﰂng out the opportuniﰂes and challenges for Bangladesh within each area, and by summarizing key policy recommendations to better address governance and gender issues to achieve food security.
Agricultural trade has been an important contributor in Bangladesh to improved food security and price stability. For example, private sector imports have assured a price ceiling at import parity levels in the aftermath of major floods in 1998 and 2004. As the global price crisis has shown, however, the positive experiences with private trade might not completely eliminate the role of public food stocks. While Bangladesh is a net agricultural importer, it has also been successful in exporting cereals and high-value products such as shrimp and fish. This success has partly been due to preferential trade agreements. However, further investments are needed to assure that Bangladesh can adhere to increasing quality and safety standards and to prepare for a more liberalized international trade environment, once the Doha trade negotiations are finalized.
More from Bangladesh Food Security Investment Forum (13)
Agricultural marketing, price stabilization, value chains, and global/regiona...
Address by Dr. Muhammad Abdur Razzaque, Honourable Minister, Ministry of Food and Disaster Management Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh
1. BANGLADESH FOOD SECURITY INVESTMENT FORUM 2010
26−27 May 2010 • Pan Pacific Sonargaon • Dhaka
Inaugural Session
26 May 2010 • Dhaka, Bangladesh
Address by
Dr. Muhammad Abdur Razzaque, Honourable Minister,
Ministry of Food and Disaster Management
Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh
Chief Guest, Sheikh Hasina, Hon'ble Prime Minister
Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh
Begum Matia Chowdhury, Honourable Minister
Special Guests:
Ministry of Agriculture
Mr. Md. Abdul Latif Biswas, Honourable Minister
Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock
Dr. Rajiv Shah, Administrator, United States Agency for International Development
Guest of Honour, Mr. Hiroyuki Konuma, Assistant Director General and Regional
Representative for Asia and the Pacific, FAO
Guest of Honour, Dr. David Nabarro, UN Special Representative for Food Security and
Nutrition
Mr. Barun Dev Mitra, Secretary, Food Division
Dr. Shenggen Fan, Director General, IFPRI
Dr. M. K. Mujeri, Director General, BIDS
My colleagues from different Ministries
Diplomats, Dignitaries, Distinguished Guests and Participants
Representatives from the Media
Ladies and Gentlemen
Good morning to you all!
It is indeed a privilege for me to be able to attend and chair the inaugural session of the 'Bangladesh
Food Security Investment Forum 2010'. You all know by this time that this international Forum is
being organized by Food Division, Ministry of Food and Disaster Management, Government of the
People's Republic of Bangladesh in collaboration with partners. At the very outset, I would like to
gratefully acknowledge the technical support offered by International Food Policy Research Institute
(IFPRI), Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) and Food and Agricultural
2. Organization of the United Nations (UN-FAO) in a very short notice and financial support provided
by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and others.
Ladies and Gentlemen, our Chief Guests, Hon'ble Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, daughter of the
Father of the Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman will give her visionary speech after me.
Her guidance has always been the inspiration for all of us in the Government. Under her able
leadership we achieved food self-sufficiency in 1999-2000 and with the same spirit we would
reinvigorate agriculture and food security in future.
Distinguished Participants and Guests, let me begin with recalling few issues of global and
regional food security situation and link that with Bangladesh scenario. We are aware of the
estimate of FAO that the number of undernourished worldwide reached 1.02 billion in 2009. This
represents, in FAO's language, more hungry people than at any time since 1970 and a worsening of
the unsatisfactory trends that were present even before the economic crisis. The World Food
Summit target of reducing the number of undernourished people by half to no more than 420
million by 2015 will not be reached if the trends continue.
I would like to remind you the FAO projection on global supply and prices for 2009-10. The global
food supply projection for 2009-10 is 2286 million metric ton, 1.5 percent up from last year and
similar to the record level of 2008. However, much will depend on climatic conditions in the
coming months. The quantity fluctuates over the years-globally and regionally. Some countries
have continued their restriction of export since 2007. International cereal prices have declined in
the past months and are below their levels of a year ago reflecting ample cereal supplies in
2009/10. In developing countries, however, food prices remain above the pre-crisis level of early
2008, negatively affecting access to food of vulnerable populations. Despite record or bumper 2009
cereal harvests in many LIFDCs, food difficulties persist in 29 countries worldwide. The prices,
projected supply and trade policy regime of exporting countries have persistently been posing
volatility and uncertainty of global food market. Global Economic down turn has also been having
impacts on our exports and remittances.
Ladies and Gentlemen, we are from a region which, in spite of steady economic growth in the past
two decades, houses about 40 percent of the world's poor and 35% of the world's under-nourished.
We have enormous challenges left although we demonstrated a decent economic growth
accompanied by commendable performance in the agricultural sector in the last couple of decades.
The production shortfall resulting from natural disasters in India and the Phillipines has impacted
our accessibility to the international rice market.
At the country level, although we have shown impressive performance in many of the social
indicators, we are facing the challenge of population growth, although came down to below 1.4% it
has led us to be the most densely populated countries in the world. The most emerging challenge,
as you will hear from the Hon'ble Prime Minister, is to adapt and mitigate the impacts of climate
change, a problem not created by us, but we are the victims. Apart from those, we have
deteriorating access to natural resources, vulnerability to price shocks and persistent poverty, food
insecurity and malnutrition. We need to invest considerable resources to address these challenges.
The food grain production, which is now to the tune of over 33 million MT, tripled since the
independence in 1971. Our achieved surplus in food grain production did not sustain in the
subsequent years. The Government, at its present tenure, has resorted to bring back the trend of
agriculture growth on track-from 3.2% in 2007-08 to 4.6% in 2008-09. But the production of
[2]
3. wheat, pulses, oilseeds, vegetables, fruits, milk and meats still remains below the actual
requirements.
On the access front, we still see increasing number of poor, widening income and consumption
inequality-the spatial vulnerability pockets. The volatility and uncertainty of world food market
keeps us in fear of deteriorating access during shocks. Significant improvements in consumption
and nutrition have also been made, although children and women still suffer from higher levels of
malnutrition as compared to WHO cut off levels. That means, outcomes of the growth have not yet
been fully harnessed.
Many have explored the causes. I suppose, the papers that are being presented in this Forum will
have detail findings. But I like to point out a couple of issues. In my view, the major impediments
have been i) limited flow of investment to real sector of the economy which has enormous
potentials for employment generation; and ii) reduction of investment, especially ODA to broad
agriculture which is crucial for pro-poor growth. In addition, our own development efforts are
being wasted by climate change impacts: temperature stresses, droughts, floods, cyclones, tidal
surges and submergence, salinity intrusion etc. of increasing frequencies and intensities.
The global food crisis has made us learn few lessons. From the uncertainty of food import and
reduction of food aid to around 0.1 million MT from 1.0-1.5 million tons earlier, we learnt the
urgency of increasing domestic food production through increased investment in agriculture. It has
also shown us the essence of strengthening regional and bi-lateral cooperation between countries
to face emergencies.
In view of this, the present Government, in its 2009-10 budgets, attached top priority to facilitate
domestic food production, increase capacity of PFDS to respond to shocks and support pro-poor
growth. The Government's stimulus packages for the agriculture sector include: making availability
of inputs, reducing the prices of non-urea fertilizer and diesel, enhancing irrigation, increasing
allocations for the recapitalization of state-owned agricultural banks, provisioning increased
remunerative prices to farmers and allocating fund for research. We increased the allocation to
Social Safety Net Programs (SSNPs) taking 17% of total government expenditure. But the issue is
that the SSNPs do not cover all the poor yet. A sizeable number is left excluded. This means we
need more money although we are already overburdened. So, we would urge the development
partners' to extend support to increasing coverage and effectiveness of SSNPs.
Ladies and Gentlemen, the present Government of Bangladesh has come to power with a 'Charter
for Change' illustrated in its 'Vision 2021', which envisages, among others, self-sufficiency in food
production by 2012, achievement of MDG-1 by 2017 at the latest and reduction of absolute poverty
to 15% by 2021. In line with its vision and mission, the present Government has intensified
support to food security programs as mentioned earlier. The National Food Policy and its Plan of
Action and the PRSP outline the comprehensive strategies and actions for improving food security
in the country. These are country-led plans formulated following participatory process involving all
stakeholders. So they deserve development partners' support for implementation.
Especially in the context of growth of population, declination and degradation of land resources
and climate change impacts, we require increasing investment to agriculture especially in research
to develop stress tolerant (salinity, flood and drought) varieties of crops and adopt technologies.
We need to implement strategic actions to make our agriculture system efficient, sustained and
resilient. We need to graduate our agriculture from subsistence to commercialization. The speech
[3]
4. of the Hon'ble Minister for Agriculture and Minister for Fisheries and Livestock has rightly outlined
our prioritized strategies and actions in those sectors. We need to provide price incentives for
domestic food producers, retain adequate public foodgrain stock to offer consumers price support
during shocks and enhance food based safety nets. We need to strengthen PFDS to effectively
implement the targeted programmes and to increase capacity to respond to shocks. We need to
implement the prioritized actions for improving nutritional status of the people especially women
and children. While the Plan of Action represents a major reference for guiding, implementing,
monitoring and coordinating actions for food security in the country, this Forum is to prioritize
actions and programs to make it better align with domestic and international availability of
resources. I would urge the development partners to support in the implementation our prioritized
actions and programmes.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Bangladesh endorses the principles set forth at the Paris Declaration on
Aid Effectiveness in 2005 and Accra Agenda for Action and appreciates the principles set forth at
the World Food Summit 1996 and 2009, L'Aquila G-8 summit in 2009, especially those for fostering
partnership for improving food security. As said earlier, we have articulated country led policies
through participatory processes. Now it is the development partners' turn to align their aid policy
to our country strategies and enhance co-ordination in order to achieve development results.
I hope that this Forum would achieve its objectives with the active participation of all of you. It has
already earned high esteem with the presence of top policy makers of Bangladesh, high officials
from our development partners, diplomats and international celebrities from Harvard, IFPRI and
the World Bank who took a lot of trouble flying to Bangladesh. Your presence has enlightened us.
We are much grateful to the Hon'ble Prime Minister, the Minister for Agriculture and other cabinet
colleagues for their kind presence and inspiration.
My Government and I are extremely happy to organize this Forum with collaboration of
development partners. I thank my colleagues in the Food Division who worked very hard to
organize this event. I hope this Forum leads towards the Country Investment Plan for sustainable
food security of Bangladesh.
I wish the success of the Forum and hope that with concerted efforts of all, we will see a hunger and
poverty free Bangladesh in near future.
Thank you all
[4]