Editorial
UN warning of food crisis
A message for us
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has warned of acute food crisis the world over what with a drop in harvests in traditional food-exporting countries. Poor harvests have been triggered mainly by adverse weather, especially heat waves and droughts. Food consumption has exceeded food production, taking reserves to the lowest level this year since 1974.
The FAO warning gives us enough reason to take stock of where Bangladesh stands in this context. The case of Bangladesh stands out on the positive side since it has virtually attained self-sufficiency in rice production due to steady growth in the past few years. Still, we should not lose sight of the fact that import sources have significantly shrunk as a result of the looming food crisis. We have had the luck with weather for a few consecutive years but there is no knowing when a natural calamity will strike us. We should have sufficient stock for the rainy days.
While our production is satisfactory, our capacity for storage is extremely limited. So the focus should now be on the preservation of crops through beefing up scientific storage facility and silo capacity. We are among the highest crop-wasting countries in the world. That is all the more reason why we need to preserve what we grow.
Looking around the global scenario, our attention should be focused on stepped-up food production with diversification of dietary habits and building of storage capacity to preserve food on a long-term basis.
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