Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) and Bangladesh Rice Foundation (BRF) are jointly organising the event at Sonargoan hotel.

The seminar on 'Food policy in Bangladesh: Issues and perspectives' will put special focus on the need for placing agriculture high on Bangladesh's reform agenda, new agricultural strategy against the targets set under the Millennium Development Goal (MDG), food trade and aid flow, said M Syeduzzaman, BRF chairman and former finance minister, at a media briefing yesterday.

Finance and Planning Minister M Saifur Rahman will be present as chief guest at the first working session while Agriculture Minister KM Anwar and Food and Disaster Management Minister Chowdhury Kamal Ibne Yusuf will attend two other sessions as chief guest.

Titles of the sessions are 'Food security: Emerging issues and challenges,' 'Bangladesh's agricultural strategy: New perspective,' and 'Disaster management: Safety nets and nutrition interventions.'

IFPRI Director General Dr Joachim von Braun, Director General of BIDS Dr Quazi Shahabuddin and Senior Research Fellow of IFPRI Dr Akhter Ahmed will present three keynote papers at the seminar.

Syeduzzaman, who is also a member of the IFPRI 2020 International Advisory Council, said that although the last one decade saw a marked rise in per capita food intake and the GDP growth rate was over five percent, more public sector investment is needed in agriculture particularly when the challenge is to produce more food in less farmland for increasing population.

Dr Quazi Shahabuddin underscored the need to re-think the sustainability of rice-led growth in Bangladesh's agriculture while Dr Akhter Ahmed of IFPRI cast light on food-aided social safety net programmes like vulnerable group feeding (VGF), vulnerable group development (VGD), food for education (FFE) and School Feeding.

Member of the BRF Board of Trustees Reaz Ahmad also spoke at the briefing held at the National Press Club. BRF Treasurer Dr Sadiq I Bhuiyan and Executive Director Md Mazharul Haq were also present.