Zinc-biofortified rice and other nutrient-rich crops should be brought into Bangladesh's government food programmes, officials and development workers said at a workshop in Sirajganj on Monday, 28 September. The advocacy workshop, held in the deputy commissioner's conference room, was organised under the Multi-sectoral Alliance for Improved Nutrition (MAIN) project.

Participants were told that under MAIN, 800 farmers in Sirajganj received zinc-biofortified rice seed and training in the current aman season. For the coming boro season the plan is to distribute seed and training to 3,600 farmers and to set up 20 demonstration plots.

Additional Deputy Commissioner (General) Ganapati Roy chaired the workshop, with Deputy Commissioner Md Aminul Islam as chief guest. Special guests were A K M Monjure Maola, deputy director of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) in Sirajganj, and the district civil surgeon Dr Md Nurul Islam. HarvestPlus Solutions country manager Md Wahidul Amin and programme manager Md Mojibar Rahman joined officials from the agriculture, food, health, education and research departments.

"Through the joint efforts of the government and the private sector, Bangladesh has achieved self-sufficiency in food production. Now we must stress nutrition security alongside food security," the deputy commissioner said. He added that zinc-rich rice in the daily diet would play an important part in the physical and mental development of future generations.

The HarvestPlus Solutions country manager called on the authorities to include biofortified rice in social protection schemes, school feeding and other running government programmes. The DAE deputy director said the extension service stands by farmers in producing safe food and would give full support to keep the work going in Sirajganj.

In an open discussion moderated by DAE additional deputy director (plant protection) Anwar Sadat, participants raised ways to build a market for biofortified crops and to raise public awareness. The workshop was implemented by HarvestPlus Solutions (HPS).

For farmers, the upshot is that zinc rice seed and training are moving from the aman season to a larger boro-season rollout, and a place in state food schemes, as discussed at the workshop, could give the grain an assured market.

Source: AgriNewsBD