Agriculture adviser Lieutenant General Md Jahangir Alam Chowdhury (retd) has said agriculture is the backbone of the country's economy, and that the task is not only to support farmers but to improve their quality of life and work for sustainable agricultural development.

The adviser was speaking as chief guest on Wednesday evening at an orientation programme for officers newly joined to the 43rd BCS (Agriculture) cadre, held at the Krishibid Auditorium in Farmgate in the capital.

He said a large part of the population depends on agriculture, which is Bangladesh's biggest source of employment. About 40.62 per cent of the country's total workforce is still engaged in farming.

He said the sector combines challenges and potential. Climate change, land degradation, new technology in farm production and the transformation of the rural economy will all open new horizons. Talent, enthusiasm and a spirit of service would take the sector further, he told the officers: "Wherever you work, you will become a guiding light for improving the lives of the farmers there and for the overall development of agriculture."

The adviser said this is the age of information technology, in which the importance of social media cannot be denied. Social media has made life easier but has also deeply affected people's professional and personal lives. As government officials, they must be especially responsible in using it; their presence there should always be professional, and their posts, comments and shares should reflect that professionalism.

Addressing the agriculture officers, he said that as government officials they would hold various important and sensitive information, and they should be careful when sharing it and make sure that nothing confidential or sensitive becomes public.

Agriculture secretary Dr Mohammad Emdad Ullah Mian presided over the programme. Md Saiful Alam, director general of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), and Dr Begum Samia Sultana, director general of the Soil Resource Development Institute (SRDI), were special guests.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.