Bangladesh wants a durable solution to ensure food for all—Bangladesh Ambassador to USA

USA NEWS:“Food remains a matter of high priority and as such our efforts have been to find solutions, a durable one, and ensure that each individual in the country gets adequate food”. This was said by Bangladesh Ambassador to USA and State Minister Akramul Qader  28 July at International Food Aid and Development Conference organized jointly by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and U.S. Agency for International Development in Kansas City, Missouri. He was speaking as the keynote speaker at a panel discussion entitled “From Small Farm to Small Business: New Direction for Sustainable Food Security.”

Citing from the speech of the  Prime Minister while inaugurating the Food Security Investment Forum in Dhaka in May 2010, he said that Bangladesh Government takes a comprehensive approach to achieve food security and as such puts emphasis on Food access and Food utilizations in addition to its efforts to increase food production. Referring to the linkages between overall socio-economic development and sustainable Food security, Ambassador Qader highlighted various initiatives of the Government especially in the vital areas of Agriculture and Human Development in line with Government’s vision to become a middle income country by 2021. He said that Bangladesh has chalked out a detailed country investment plan (CIP) for food security and urged the public and private investors to take advantage of the policy regime and invest in physical, institutional and human capacities in the fields of agriculture, water management, fisheries, livestock, agricultural marketing, food management, and nutrition and food safety in Bangladesh.

Terming Food Security as a complex issue, Ambassador Qader also drew the attention of the international community towards global challenges to attain food security for all. He said that factors like fluctuations of food price in global food market and impacts of climate change on food production need to be addressed globally.