The government has taken measures to ensure food security for the people of the country against the possible impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Ministry of Agriculture has formulated a three-step action plan on food security and agricultural development to deal with various emergencies, including the impact of corona, said official sources.
They said, this action plan has been made to continue the growth of agricultural production by using the new agricultural technologies invented, to develop the agricultural marketing system and to ensure fair prices of agricultural products.
All of these will be implemented as the short, medium and long term action plan, they said.
According to officials concerned, the successful implementation of this action plan will play a vital role in fighting the challenges centring the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the implementation of the government’s electoral manifesto and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) by 2030.
They said the government is working to ensure food security considering the situation arising from the corona pandemic. Besides, the government has also taken measures so that no food crisis is created during the post pandemic period.
As part of the moves, the government has taken up a multi-purpose action plan to continue agricultural production and to ensure fair prices of agro-products.
Besides, action plans have been projected so that the food supply chain remains uninterrupted.
Sources also said the government has decided to bring all the uncultivated land under cultivation. Besides, initiatives have been taken so that crops could be cultivated four times a year in the same piece of land.
Moreover, cultivation of fruits, vegetables and oil-type crops, and farming of cattle has also been taken in the initiatives.
Officials at the Ministry of Agriculture and the Department of Agricultural Extension said that scientific, modern and developed methods and technologies would be applied for these purposes.
According to the World Food Programme (WFP) and Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), after the corona period, an economic crisis might be created in many countries. Food crisis and even scarcity for food might also be created for the same reason.
Keeping all those assessments under consideration, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina earlier had ordered the ministers of Agriculture, Land, Food, Livestock, Fisheries and other ministries to take proper measures.
The Prime Minister has also said that not even a single inch of land would be kept uncultivated. She has put emphasis on the cultivation of fruits and vegetables apart from normal crops.
Talking about the government’s action plan, Agriculture Minister Dr Abdur Razzaq said, “This three-step action planning is a major issue for agricultural development.”
“Our agriculture has become much advanced and we have to go further ahead.”
Regarding the action plan, a member of the Planning Commission, Dr. Shamsul Alam, who is also a former President of the Bangladesh Agricultural Economic Association, said there is an alternative to modernise agriculture to ensure food security.
Officials of the Ministry of Agriculture and the Directorate of Agricultural Extension said, the entire country has been divided into 14 agricultural zones and 14 top officials have been assigned in this connection.
The Ministry and Directorate have also decided to provide all kinds of support to the farmers. With the support, a total of 10,85,15,000 decimal of uncultivated land would be added to the 85.77 hectares of cultivated land.
Earlier, the government had taken initiatives to provide various agro machinery and materials to the farmers at 50 percent of the cost.
As per the initiatives, the government is going to provide various agro machinery and materials among the farmers of the county. For the welfare of the farmers across the country, the government is taking up a Tk 3,000 crore project soon.
Earlier, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had said that the government has taken measures to ensure food security for the people of the country considering the possible impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.
While speaking at a session of the Parliament, she said “We have taken various measures to ensure food security for the people of the country.”
“We have no scarcity of food and won’t have any either. But we should continue our agricultural production,” she said adding that the government will provide farmers loans at 4 percent interest to continue production.
Sheikh Hasina said the government has taken plans and steps to keep the country’s economy moving and vibrant in the next three years so that the people of Bangladesh will never suffer in the case of worldwide famine triggered by coronavirus pandemic.
“If we can harvest the paddy properly (this season), we won’t have any food problem,” Hasina said, adding that now there is an opportunity for day-labourers to earn money from paddy harvesting.
The Prime Minister said the government will use the money of some development projects for the welfare of the people.
“We’ve many development projects which don’t need to be completed now. We can save the money to use that for the welfare of people,” she said.
Mentioning that storms and disasters may happen, the Prime Minister said there is nothing to be upset and worried about. “It’ll have to be faced with fortitude…face the ongoing disaster from your respective positions.”
