Bangladesh needs a law and workable rules, quickly, to make fortification of rice, wheat flour and refined flour mandatory, the state minister for local government, rural development and cooperatives, Mir Shah-e-Alam, said on Wednesday, 28 October. He spoke at the seminar "Convening Partnership on Food Fortification" organised by the Fortification Alliance of Bangladesh (FAB) at the Krishibid Institution Bangladesh in Farmgate, where food minister Afroza Khanam was chief guest.
Getting nutritious food to people needs legal obligation as well as awareness, he said. Adding iodine to salt and vitamins to edible oil has worked, but rice and flour have not followed. He urged the food minister to act quickly.
By his figures, Bangladesh produces about 39.2 million tonnes of rice a year against demand of 32.5 to 32.6 million tonnes, so with enough output and stocks a proper plan and timeline for rice fortification is possible.
He also suggested where to begin: fortification could be made mandatory, step by step, for the rice and flour supplied through government food assistance, including hospitals, orphanages, children's homes and the rations of law enforcement agencies.
He called for wider remits and better coordination among the departments involved, to speed up food security and nutrition work. A law would set a government standard for how much nutrition farmers' rice and wheat carry when they reach the plate.
Photo: Rice grains, IRRI Images / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
Source: samakal
Comments
(0)