Bangladesh still lacks a proper food marketing chain, despite having ample food production in the country, according to food experts.
Speaking at a discussion titled "South-South Cooperation for Food Security" at Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel in Dhaka yesterday, the experts said the country still needed an improved food distribution and storage system in order to meet the growing demand of food in the increasing urban population around the country.
Mike Robson, country representative of Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Bangladesh, said the country needed to take initiatives such as low-energy post-harvest food processing and storage, integrated models of resource use and safety measures to avert pre- and post-harvest damage of foods to ultimately strengthen food security.
In addition, Bangladesh should emphasise on introducing more high-yielding, short-duration and stress-tolerant crop varieties to meet the growing demand of food, he said.
According to the government, the country currently produces around 34m tonnes of rice – around 3.5 times the amount produced in 1970.
Dr Rafiqul Islam Mondol, director general of Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI), said the government had already taken several initiatives to develop several short-duration and stress-tolerant crop varieties, including rice, wheat, maize and vegetables.
Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) and Bangladesh Institute of Nuclear Agriculture (BINA) have already developed rice varieties tolerant of different stressful conditions, such as salinity, drought, submergence and cold, in recent years.
Mike Robson also suggested the government take necessary measures to check the abundant use of fertiliser to produce more food in the country, as it causes damage to the soil fertility to some extent.
He also expressed concern over the excessive use of groundwater for irrigation in some areas, which could make a vast area of arable land barren in the near future.
