Agriculture Minister. Md. Abdur Razzak said in order to ensure food security in the future by tackling the challenges of declining arable land, population growth and climate change in the country, high yielding varieties and technologies of crops need to be delivered to farmers at the field level.
He was speaking as the chief guest at a webinar titled 'Eighth Five-Year Plan: Review of Final Draft on Safe Food and Nutrition Security' organized by Bangladesh Agricultural Economists Association on Saturday evening.
The Agriculture Minister said that although the contribution of agriculture to the GDP is gradually decreasing, the importance of agriculture in the economy of Bangladesh is immense. This importance of agriculture will always remain for two reasons. One is to ensure food security of the people of the country and the other is to supply the raw materials of the industry from this agriculture. To achieve the growth targets set out in the Eighth Five-Year Plan, agriculture needs to take more responsibility; Agriculture needs to be made more successful.
State Minister for Information and Communication Junaid Ahmed Palak was the special guest at the webinar. Bangladesh Agricultural Economists Association President and former Senior Secretary to the Prime Minister's Office Sajjadul Hasan, Secretary General of the Association. Mohammad Mizanul Haque Kajal, Senior Vice President Shubhankar Saha and others spoke.
The main article was presented by a member of the Planning Commission (Senior Secretary) Prof. Shamsul Alam. According to the article, the Eighth Five-Year Plan has set a growth target of 8%. The three major sectors to achieve it are exports, remittances and agriculture. Growth in agriculture needs to be raised to 4%, otherwise the targets set in the Eighth Five-Year Plan will not be achieved, he said. In the last financial year, the growth in agriculture has been 3.92%.
