Agriculture Minister Dr Md Abdus Shahid has said Bangladesh is leading the world in producing many crops, including rice, vegetables and mangoes.

He said that thanks to the continuing farmer-friendly policies of the present government under Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, agricultural production has risen steadily since 2009. Bangladesh has maintained self-sufficiency in its main food grains and has risen to the top of the world, and is leading, in producing some vegetables, fruits and fish. This progress has been possible through huge subsidies to agriculture, innovation through research, the spread of modern technology and mechanisation, he said.

The minister made the remarks at a roundtable at Wageningen University in the Netherlands on the evening of Monday, 6 May, according to a press release from the Ministry of Agriculture on Tuesday, 7 May.

The minister said building agro-processing and a sustainable supply chain has now become very important for Bangladesh. Because of a lack of adequate storage and weak processing or value chain systems, much is wasted after harvest, and farmers often suffer losses as a result.

He said agriculture is Bangladesh's top priority in bilateral cooperation with the Netherlands. "We are working to transform Bangladesh's agriculture to make it sustainable and profitable. Some groundbreaking Dutch technologies, innovations and research will be introduced in Bangladesh," he said.

The Ministry of Agriculture and the Bangladesh Embassy in the Netherlands organised the roundtable to present the potential of, and investment opportunities in, Bangladesh's farm sector to global stakeholders in agricultural development and agribusinesses. Wageningen University and the Global Institute for Food Security at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada helped organise it. More than 200 representatives of international development organisations, agricultural experts, NGOs and the private sector from around the world took part.

At the meeting, the main global partners pledged full cooperation to make Bangladesh's agriculture risk-free, sustainable, profitable and sustainable for marginal farmers and entrepreneurs.

Bangladesh's ambassador to the Netherlands, M Riaz Hamidullah, moderated the roundtable. Agriculture Secretary Wahida Akter; Rens Bochwald, a member of Wageningen University's executive board; Dr Sheikh Mohammad Bakhtiar, executive chairman of the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC); Baljit Singh, vice-president of the University of Saskatchewan; and Dr Md Mahmudur Rahman, joint secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture, were among the speakers.

The discussion focused on four issues for Bangladesh's agriculture: raising crop productivity, farm mechanisation, building a sustainable supply chain, and filling skills gaps in research. At the end, Wageningen University, the University of Saskatchewan and BARC reached a tripartite understanding on long-term cooperation, under which some initiatives will be piloted at field level in Bangladesh.

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