Agriculture Minister Dr Md Abdur Razzaque has said the present government is working tirelessly to guarantee safe and nutritious food for everyone, and efforts are under way to improve crop production. Production following good agricultural practice has already begun. If crops are grown this way, the nutritional value of food will be maintained and the environment will not be harmed, he said.

The minister was speaking as chief guest on Saturday afternoon at a technical session at a hotel in the capital on "Better production, better nutrition, a better environment and a better life", held for World Food Day. The Ministry of Agriculture and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) organised the event.

The minister said there is no shortage of nutritious food in the country, but the problem is that most people cannot afford it because their incomes are limited. So ordinary people's incomes must be raised.

FAO director general Qu Dongyu said in a video message: "To meet the challenges and ensure food security for people around the world, we must build a resilient, inclusive and sustainable agricultural system."

The event was chaired by Md Mesbahul Islam, senior secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture. Food secretary Dr Nazmanara Khanum, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council executive chairman Dr Sheikh Mohammad Bakhtiar and FAO's Bangladesh representative Robert D. Simpson were among the speakers.

The keynote paper was presented by Dr Lawrence Haddad, executive director of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN). It said that because of Covid, malnutrition, poverty and food prices are rising significantly worldwide. Because of the coronavirus, an additional 12 million stunted children and 13 million wasted children could be added to the malnourished by 2022.

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