Dhaka, 19
November :
Agriculture Minister Begum Matia
Chowdhury has said the Bangladesh government has attached
topmost priorities to agriculture, food security and nutrition that led to the
self-sufficiency in rice production feeding a large population with domestic
agricultural production.
Delivering a keynote statement at
the 40th anniversary of the International Food Policy Research
Institute (IFPRI) on 18 November in Washington DC, she, however, said although
Bangladesh has made good progress in
agriculture and economic growth, the country is increasingly facing challenges
of population growth, climate change impacts and vulnerability to domestic and
international price shock.
The Agriculture Minister appeared
critical of biofuel production as she said although Bangladesh receives policy advice and
funds from international organizations but unhelpful policies like production
of biofuel sometimes attempted by some countries contradicts the overhanging
goal of attaining food security for all.
She said it is felt that the
expansion of biofuels has led to massive diversion of maize to ethanol
production, reducing the maize supply for consumption as food, and thus causing
maize price to rise rapidly.
Speaking on 'Evolution of Food
Policy', Matia Chowdhury observed sharp increase in land under maize
cultivation also results in reduced soybean and wheat cultivation.
She said it is quite ironic that biofuels
are still promoted by some multinational corporations as an ecofriendly
sustainable alternative to fossil fuels when 2,500 liters of water are required
to producing a mere one liter of biofuel.
'Policies that promote biofuels have
diverted large quantities of food out of food markets and committed them to the
pursuit of relatively small amount of transport fuel,' she told the day-long
IFPRI conference on Wednesday.
Government leaders, agriculture
scientists and economists from USA, U.K, Canada, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium,
Australia, Chile, Brazil, Ethiopia, China, India and Pakistan attended the
conference split into different working sessions on food security, agriculture
and nutrition, market, trade and macro-policies.
State Minister for Finance and
Planning Mohammad Abdul Mannan also spoke at the conference.
IFPRI at the conference launched the
Compact 2025 global initiative for the elimination of hunger and under
nutrition by 2025.
