Speakers at a webinar on Thursday stressed increasing women’s involvement in agriculture production system to increase the GDP coming from the Agriculture sector.
They discussed the importance of creating diversified non-farm income generating sources to make agriculture a sustainable source of income.
The FAO Meeting the Undernutrition Challenge Project (MUCH) and the Food Planning and Monitoring Unit (FPMU), Ministry of Food (MoF), hosted the webinar on “‘Sub-national workshop on dissemination of the results of the food and nutrition security research conducted under the MUCH Research Grants Scheme”.
The webinar aimed at disseminating the findings of the research focusing on the sub-national level to improve food and nutrition security outcomes and highlight the interrelationships between research findings and relevant policy actions. More, it was designed to elicit field-level feedback from the sub-national levels for onward decision making at national level.
More, speakers also discussed about to increase diversity of food diets through encouraging the production of more diversified and micronutrient-enriched crops. In line, they underpinned the necessity of fair price and food market value chain, reducing the food loss and waste, with focus on vegetable and fruits.
The Chair of the webinar Shahiduzzaman Faruki, Director General (Additional Secretary), Food Planning and Monitoring Unit (FPMU) opened the webinar while Md. Mizanur Rahman, Government Advisor, FAO Meeting the Undernutrition Challenge (MUCH) Project delivered the introductory remarks. Dr. Lalita Bhattacharjee, Senior Nutrition Advisor, MUCH, FAO presented the overall research process, conducted under the MUCH Research Grants Scheme (RGS).
The DG, FPMU in his welcome speech spoke about how the results and recommendations of this research are expected to provide baseline benchmarks for monitoring selected priority areas of intervention of the National Food and Nutrition Security Policy Plan of Action (2021-2030) and the Bangladesh Third Country Investment Plan (CIP3).
Also, Faruki said, “The government of Bangladesh has committed to reduce poverty and improve nutritional status by 2030 in line with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. So, we all should play an active role to address the key challenges and potential areas for future development”
Around 150 participants attended the webinar, among which senior officials of MoF, DAE, MoF, BNNC, CNRS, World Fish Bangladesh, IRRI, Solidarity, CIRDAP, BBS BFSA, Harvest Plus, academia, CSOs and media.
The webinar also suggested for some new research, which FAO should consider with taking the lead on - mode of marketing of food items and food waste management to further relate to the FNS policies.
