Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has urged the food ministry officials to work together with the particular vision to make Bangladesh free from hunger and poverty so that not a single citizen dies out of starvation.
Emphasising on food security, she said production of food must be increased braving all natural calamities along with taking steps for their storage, processing, marketing and making food available for the poor section of the people.
The prime minister made the statement while visiting the Food Ministry on Sunday.
She visited the ministry as part of her plan to visit every ministry for exchanging views with the officials, know about the projects and programmes of the ministries and give the necessary directives to bring dynamism in their activities.
Sheikh Hasina said it's indeed a hard task to ensure food security for all the people amidst frequent natural calamities.
"But all our steps, so far we have taken following the directives and guidelines shown by Bangabandhu, yielded a good result to build up food autarky in the country," she added.
"Every political party has a mindset. Our mindset is to make the country self-reliant in all aspects. We don't want to beg from others. Keeping this in view we have taken steps for increasing food production by making available the agricultural commodities to farmers, modernisation of the agriculture and most importantly giving emphasis on research," she said.
In this regard the prime minister pointed out the differences of her party and predecessor BNP saying: "Our policy is to increase food production and stand on our own feet, while BNP and its former finance minister had the opposite policy of seeking aid from donors."
Food Minister Advocate M Quamrul Islam gave a speech welcoming the prime ,minister while secretary of the ministry Mushfiqa Ikfat also spoke on the occasion.
On the occasion, Food Minister Quamrul Islam handed over the 'Diploma Award' to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina which was conferred by FAO to Bangladesh along with 38 countries for showing their success in reducing poverty faster than the time-frame stipulated in the Millennium Development Goal (MDG).
The prime minister reminded that Bangladesh as a nation first achieved food autarky during the rule of the Awami League in 1998. "It could be possible for taking some quick decisions at the policy level after a devastating flood," she said adding her party doesn't believe in the policy of begging from others forever.
Sheikh Hasina said her government has ensured at least one meal a day for those who are in starvation, two meals for those who get only one meal a day and three meals for those who get two meals a day. "Now we are working for ensuring nutrition for every person as it's mentioned in the MDG in 2000," she added.
She said Bangladesh is one of the countries which set the example in increasing food production whereas the Director General FAO once expressed his grief over poor performance of the FAO projects in different countries taken in this field.
It helped us in getting the Ceres Award, she said adding: "We have proved that firm determination can overcome any challenge."
The prime minister said over the years the country's population has been increased while the area of arable land has declined. "But, our agricultural production never came down, rather increased manifold. In 1996 the total food production was 1.90 crore metric tonnes whereas now the figure has increased to 3.68 crore MT," she said.
"The Awami League government after taking office in 2009 took back the godowns giving compensation of Tk6 crore and shifted the factories to another place," she said.
Sheikh Hasina said as a disaster prone country, Bangladesh should always be ready for storage of sufficient food to meet any crisis. "We need modern storage facilities to augment the stock of food to avoid import of food during any emergency," she said.
She said her government has made the Mongla Port operational through dredging for loading and unloading of food grains to be carried out to the northern parts of the country. "A silo is also being constructed there for the storage of food," she said.
The prime minister said her government has brought diversification in agricultural production through research. "High yielding seeds of paddy and wheat are being produced. Steps were taken for cultivation of maize in the northern districts of the country which are extremely poor," she said.
Mentioning the success of the country in producing saline, water and drought tolerant varieties of rice, the prime minister said the government has a plan to use the country's southern parts for cultivation of paddy and northern parts for cultivation of wheat, maize, pulses and other crops and vegetables which require less water.
She said: "The government also has a plan to establish agro-based industries. In view of this seven areas in the seven divisions were identified and a well throughout communication system will be developed with those areas so that goods are carried at a very low cost."
She said new varieties of rice like Banagla Moti have been invented. "In line with this we have to give attention to reproduce other aromatic varieties which we have lost over the years," she added.
