More investment needed in agri-research: minister
Bangladesh has to invest heavily on agricultural research for climate change adaptation as the country is extremely vulnerable to the warming of the world's weather, said Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister Anisul Islam Mahmud yesterday.
“In agriculture we have to think about the changing pattern of the rain as sometimes it is coming early,” he told a seminar, “A Climate Resilient South Asia: Turning Climate Smart Investment Opportunities into Reality”.
“So we have to think about plantation and have to go for research to find out the adaptation. A tremendous amount of investment is needed for agricultural research,” he told the event at the Sonargaon hotel in Dhaka.
The Saarc Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Saarc CCI) and the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) jointly organised the event.
Mahmud said Bangladesh had already taken preventive measures such as building flood embankments and dredging rivers.
“We have already topped a global list of countries as we installed six million climate-friendly solar home systems and two million improved cooking stoves across the country,” he said.
“Bangladesh is now at the forefront in the fight against climate change. In spite of so many hurdles, including early rain, our economic growth rate is now more than 7 percent,” he said.
“It has been unusual for a country facing such climate change effects to be able to sustain an average growth rate of 6 percent plus for almost nine years,” added Mahmud.
He said Bangladesh was very vulnerable because of its geographical location while no other country was facing problems arising from climate change on all sides. “We have the Bay of Bengal in the south, and the Everest in the north,” he added.
He thinks Bangladesh having more cyclones and flooding in recent times, along with a gradual sea level rise around the world, was a testament to global warming.
“It is a change (climate) which is global over which we have no control. Control lies actually in big countries like the US, the European Union, China and India who are the main emitters of carbon dioxide, which results in global warming,” said Mahmud.
FBCCI President Md Shafiul Islam Mohiuddin, Saarc CCI President Ruwan Edirisinghe and Saarc CCI Vice President-Bangladesh Mahbubul Alam also spoke.
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