PM Sheikh Hasina to South Asian leaders for establishing 'Food Bank'

"The initiative undertaken to set up a 'SAARC Food Bank' should be materialized fast ... let the (food) bank be a friend of need so that not a single human being dies of starvation in our region," she said.

While formally inaugurating the Third Meeting of SAARC Ministers' of Agriculture at Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel here on Thursday morning, the Premier also requested the policymakers for taking steps to formulate a "SAARC Seed Bank" in order to ensure the participation and empowerment of the farmers in the area of seed.

The Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh have jointly organised the three-day meeting.

Bangladesh Agriculture Minister Begum Matia Chowdhury presided over the inaugural session of the meeting, while current chair of the Meeting of SAARC Ministers' of Agriculture and Indian Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Radha Mohan Singh and SAARC Secretary General Arjun Bahadur Thapa spoke at the function as the special guests.

Agriculture Secretary of Bangladesh Moinuddin Abdullah delivered the welcome address.

Sheikh Hasina said there is no alternative to joint initiatives of the countries of the region to eradicate poverty and hunger from the region.

"We don't want a single human being to remain starved and suffer from malnutrition ... we want to meet the basic rights of every citizen. But it is not possible for an individual country to achieve it; rather a joint effort is required in this purpose," she said.

In this connection, the Prime Minister said Bangladesh has always put emphasis on regional cooperation to improve the lives and livelihood of the people of the South Asian countries.

After independence of Bangladesh in 1971, she said, Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman felt the need for regional cooperation to improve the lives and livelihood of the people of the South Asian Region, which he expressed in February 1972 at a state banquet in Kolkata.

"Since then, Bangladesh has always been keeping regional cooperation high on its foreign policy agenda," she said.

The Prime Minister stressed the need for more "concrete cooperation and collaboration" among the SAARC states and focusing on several key areas to ensure sustainable development in agriculture.

These include: 1. Ensuing improved seeds at reasonable price; 2. Proper water management in agriculture reducing dependence on underground water and increasing use of surface water; 3. Introducing organic farming reducing use of chemical fertilizer; 4. Reduction of insecticide and expansion of IPM; 5. Reduction of the cost of agricultural farming; 6. Ensuring fair prices of agricultural produces at farmers level; 7. Strengthening agricultural marketing; 8. Ensuring the rights of marginal farmers; 9. Introducing improved management and disease-preventing measures for cattle-heads, poultry birds and fishes; 10. Conducting quality research for carrying out these tasks.

The Premier said agriculture constitutes the key element of the economies of most of the SAARC countries till today despite dependence on agriculture in GDP declines in some countries.

"Agriculture plays formidable role in creating jobs in rural areas, providing food and nutrition and supplying raw materials for industries," she said.

Sheikh Hasina said food remains at the top of the basic needs for human being. "Despite remarkable success and progress of civilization, and science and technology, it is yet not possible to ensure adequate food for all people on the planet," she said.

According to FAO, she said, nearly 805 million people out of 7.3 billion on the earth suffer from malnutrition. That means one in every nine is not getting required quantity of food. Of them, 791 million hungry people live in the developing countries and 276.4 million in the South Asia region alone.

Pointing out that ensuring food security is closely linked to agriculture, the Premier said it's also a multi-faceted and complex issue.

"I hope that the ministers and experts attending the conference would formulate recommendations that would help eradicate poverty from this region through increasing agri-production in a sustainable manner," she said.

"In this august conference, it should be our commitment to ensure food and nutritional security across South Asia region," she added.

The Prime Minister reiterated her government's unwavering commitment to ensuring food and nutritional security for all the people of this region.

"My government will remain steadfast in formulating and implementing laws regarding enhancing food and agriculture production and ensuring food and nutritional security for all the people of this region ... let us work together for building a poverty and hunger-free peaceful prosperous South Asia," she said.

After achieving remarkable success in Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), she said, Bangladesh adopted Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) last year.

"The Goal 1 and Goal 2 are directly related to ending extreme poverty and hunger, and get priority than other goals ... without development of agriculture ensuring food and nutrition for all will be a distant dream," she said.

In Bangladesh, she said, agriculture contributes around 16% in GDP and is still the major provider for rural labour force. "Our agriculture has made tremendous progress since independence," she said.

The Prime Minister said production of food grains has increased significantly. Production of rice and wheat has gone up by three times while production of vegetables has risen by five times during the last one decade.

"Now, we are not only self-sufficient in rice production with the annual production of around 34 million metric tons, we are exporting some quantity of rice as well," she said.

The Prime Minister also highlighted Bangladesh's success in fish production, livestock sector as well as developing stress-tolerant crop varieties and technologies to cope with the adverse impact of climate change.

She said jute genome sequence decoded by Bangladeshi scientists is another landmark event in the history of agricultural research and development in Bangladesh.

"I am sure all the SAARC member states have their own such success stories and best practices to share ... now, it is time for us to cooperate and collaborate more concretely to develop sustainable agriculture for the region and overcome local and global challenges and vulnerabilities," she said.

"Our agricultural practices are not strong enough owing to various reasons. The SAARC countries remain on high risk because of adverse impact of climate change," she said.

The Premier said especially, the sea-locked and coastal countries will be worst hit if the current situations are not reversed. Natural calamities like flooding, tidal surge and earthquake may make vulnerable these achievements, she said.

"We would not be able to prevent natural disasters, but we can minimize losses of lives and property through reducing the causes of disasters and improving the post-disaster management," she said.

Describing "education" and "human development" as the best ways to eradicate poverty, the Prime Minister elaborated massive programmes her government took in this area.

"We have declared in 2009 that Bangladesh will be a middle-income country by 2021. Now we can say that we are at the threshold of the target," she said.

The World Bank, she said, has already recognised Bangladesh as a lower middle income country.

"I would like to congratulate our people as they are able to corner the deprivation of hunger and poverty through their relentless struggle ... we want to ensure our place among the developed nations by 2041 in continuation of our current efforts," she said.

Photo: Saiful Islam Kallol