Bangladeshi government outlines five-year agriculture plan

The Bangladeshi government is in the process of preparing a five-year plan for the overall agriculture scenario of the country, according to Finance Minister AMA Muhith.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Food and Disaster Management along with the Planning Commission are engaged in a process to make a five-year plan as a whole on the country's agriculture scenario, Muhith said.

He said that the agriculture sector has expanded a lot since the 1970s as the production of food grains now stood at 34 million tonnes which was only 11 million tonnes in the latter part of the 1970s. Sectors like poultry and fishery have developed and are included in agriculture.

Terming food security as the basic subject, the minister said that the government should not avert attention from the overall subject.

Terming nutrition as a very important target for the government, Muhith said that malnutrition depends on partly on distribution and partly on habits.

Food and Disaster Management Minister Dr. M Abdur Razzaque, who chaired the closing session, said attaining food security and climate change are the major challenges ahead of the country.

He said that 60% of the country's overall population lives below the poverty line and 35% of them are malnourished.

These issues were addressed at a two-day Bangladesh Food Security Investment Forum 2010 held in Bangladesh.