Editorial
Meeting rising demand for food
Farming diversification needed
Bangladesh needs to invest more on research to introduce improved varieties of seed for meeting the rising demand for foods, that too in the face of the negative impact of climate change. This was underscored by experts in a roundtable at the Daily Star on Saturday. They also suggested diversifying crops and focusing more on livestock and fishery sectors anticipating that people would consume less rice and spend more on other food items in the years ahead.
We could not agree more with the discussants. Bangladesh is one of the highest rice consumption countries in the world. Therefore the rice output has shot up over the last couple of decades bringing in its wake degradation of soil and fall in underground water table.
Consumption of rice has to be reduced and other food times like, maize, wheat and potatoes should be switched over to. Simultaneously, efforts must be directed to rapid development of livestock and fishery as alternative food sources.
For all this, we need a coordinated approach to focus on balanced use of fertilizer, increased production and use of pesticide, dissemination of already developed technologies and practices that require less water, fertilizer and integrated pest management approaches.
We shall also have to strengthen the institutional capacity of agricultural research agencies in putting together adaptation measures to secure and step up agriculture, livestock and fishery production by containing the effects of climate change.
In the ultimate analysis, we need to tackle the population growth if we are to feed increasing number of mouths on a sustained basis. To this end, incidence of poverty would have to be reduced in tandem with containing baby boom.
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