Sheikh Hasina Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday directed the officials concerned to encourage the future generation in agriculture to lessen imports of food items. “The trend of non-involvement in agriculture should be driven away. Even, the children of farmers don’t want to go to field. This should be driven away,” she said while addressing officials of agriculture ministry at the secretaria
t. Suggesting the ministry to use modern equipment for high yields, Hasina asked the officials to make a move to encourage educated people in agriculture. She underpinned the importance of attaching agriculture in education system in a manner so that students feel encouraged to get involved in the profession. “Let them [students] understand it is a sacred and important job.” Laying importance of research, the premier called for result-based agricultural research. “It’s impossible to increase production without research. More research activities should be conducted.” She urged the researchers to bring back the golden days of edible oils as the people were used to use home-made edible oils. “People used to use mustard and nut oils. Why do we take soya bean oil instead of mustard and nut oils?” the PM said, asking the ministry to make a move so that the country does not need to import soya bean oil. Thanking researchers and officials for attaining food autarky, she said the government can invest money, which is spent on food imports, in other fields. Hasina bashed Bangladesh Nationalist Party for its stance on making Bangladesh dependent on other countries. “BNP wants to make the country a handicapped one. Will the country remain a pauper?” she said, adding that her government has turned Bangladesh into a food-surplus country but the BNP-led government made it a shortfall of foods. Reminding the officials Bangabandhu’s highest effort in the sector, the premier said her government has been maintaining the progress. “Bangabandhu granted agriculture graduates first-class position in 1973 to attract brilliant students to the booming sector,” Hasina mentioned. Listing achievements of researches in the sector, she said, “I think Bangladesh produces the best strawberry. It has been possible as government emphasises research. Now, all kinds of vegetables are available in the county.” The premier asked the ministry to take more steps to ensure fair prices of farm produce. Terming agriculture the driving force of economy, she said her government has been implementing massive programmes for overall development of the sector. “The ministry is currently implementing 81 projects involving Tk1 336 crore.” “Budgetary allocation for the ministry is increasing every year and Tk 12, 288 crore has been allocated for the current fiscal alone,” Hasina said, adding that about Tk 14, 000 crore were distributed to farmers as agricultural loans in only 2013-14 fiscal for boosting agriculture. The premier thanked the ministry for outlining a master plan for the agriculture development in 14 southern districts and asked to implement the plan to face the challenges in the coastal belt. “We want to take paddy to the southern region. Once, Barisal was known as a granary of crops. We want to restore the glory,” she said, directing the officials to be more active in implementing ongoing projects in time with all standards. Mentioning her recent China visit, the PM said the Chinese are farming different hybrid varieties. “We talked with them to bring those varieties.” She said National Agriculture Policy-2013 has been framed to ensure food safety and nutrition through facing various challenges caused by climate change, increasing productivity and making agriculture sustainable. Besides, work on formulating National Agriculture Extension Policy-2014 and National Micro-Irrigation Policy-2014 is also in progress. Hasina highlighted her government’s success on agricultural research and said: “Our scientists uncovered genome sequence of jute while invented paddy varieties that are tolerant to drought, flood and salinity.” All these are the results of government’s efforts to strengthen agro-based research activities, she mentioned. She urged scientists to innovate technologies suitable to bring new char areas in the south under cultivation. Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury gave her welcome address while secretary and senior officials of the ministry and heads of different organisations under it attended the meeting.
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