Experts at a workshop today laid emphasis on developing climate-tolerant varieties of crops to increase crop production for ensuring food security in the country.There is broad consensus that climate change will have profound implications for agriculture and food security, especially in agro-ecological zones, where productivity thresholds are at the limit of physiological tolerance, they told a workshop at the conference hall of Bangladesh National Commission for UNESCO (BNCU), BANBEIS Bhaban in the city.
The Islamic Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) and BNCU are jointly organizing three-day workshop on “Future Crops for Food Security and Sustainability”.
Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid addressed the seminar as the chief guest with Secretary of Secondary and Higher Secondary Division Md Sohrab Hossain in the chair.
Director General of Directorate General of Food Md Arifur Rahman, officials, agriculture scientists and researchers, among others, also spoke on the occasion.
Nahid urged the agriculture scientists to intensify their research works to invent new crop varieties that will contribute to increase food production in the country.
The country has already achieved self-sufficiency in food production as the government is implementing different effective programmes to enhance crop production, he added.
“Alongside increasing food production, we should check food adulteration to protect health of the people,” he said adding massive awareness campaigns are needed to stop any unhealthy practices.
Cropping systems will need to adapt foreseen hotter and more volatile climates, they said adding just four crops — maize, wheat, rice and soybean — provide more than 60 percent of the world’s food, there is an ample need for diversification in favour of crops that are more resilient to climate shocks and can yield on soils that are marginal for major commodity crops, reports BSS.
