Pathway built to achieve food security

The government has prepared a national guideline to achieve food security and meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), officials said yesterday.

The national pathway document has been framed keeping in mind the issues of food security, hunger-free population, availability of nutritious food, safe food, reducing waste, and sustainable food production. 

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The guideline will be presented at the UN Food System Summit 2021 to be organised by the United Nations in New York on September 23.

The information was revealed at an event styled "Media Sensitisation Workshop on Participation of Bangladesh in the UN Food System Summit" at the Information Building in Dhaka.

Bangladesh is developing a standard food system to achieve the SDGs by 2030.

An action plan has been formulated to take effective steps to sustain food production, from producers, production processes and supply chains to addressing adverse environmental effects, according to a paper distributed at the workshop.

At the summit, the UN will present separate action plans on the food system development. However, all countries will prepare their respective action plan.

"Now people who go to markets to buy rice don't return empty-handed," said Food Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder, while speaking at the workshop.

"We have also made advancement in terms of nutrition in the fish and meat sectors. It has to be replicated in the other sectors as well."

"No matter how many national pathway documents we prepare, they will not matter much if ordinary people don't benefit from them."

The United Nations and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) have convened the summit to set different levels of the food system transformation to achieve the SDGs.

"We have talked to the rural people. Their opinion has been incorporated in the action plan," said Food Secretary Mosammat Nazmanara Khanum.

"There is no deficiency in our plan. We will have to work to make sure that we don't destroy the environment while increasing production. Then our development will be sustainable," she said.

Robert D Simpson, country representative of the FAO, Shahiduzzaman Faruki, director-general of the Food, Planning and Monitoring Unit under the food ministry, Rudaba Khondker, country director of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition Bangladesh, Mohammad Monirul Hasan, market and trade policy adviser of the FAO Bangladesh, and Mokbul Hossain, information and broadcasting secretary, also attended the programme.