Future food security

Though the country is self sufficient in feeding its 160 million strong population, we cannot remain complacent to the fact that the national population is slated to keep growing to 220 million before it stabilises. Feeding such a huge population with limited agricultural lands and water resources poses daunting challenges for policymakers. These and other issues were discussed by policy planners, domestic and international agro-experts at the Krishibid Institution Bangladesh's Fifth National Convention and International Agriculture Conference 2016.

Future agriculture production remains prone to changing climatic conditions that make water for irrigation a problem area. The incessant encroachment of realtors and industry on farmlands continues in the absence of any laws that prohibit the conversion of such land for non-farm activities. The environmental changes include the erosion of topsoil as brick kilns in the land continue to consume vast quantities of it annually that effectively render farmlands useless for years.

We are faced with an ageing farming populace as younger people tend to choose other professions and productivity cannot be increased as land ownership remains fragmented and small in size. The need to introduce new varieties of crops like saline-resistant and vitamin-enriched and crops has become more imperative than ever, particularly in the southern belt where high salinity of farmlands have rendered entire districts unfit for cultivation. Although we have done enough to ensure food security for the present, much remains to be done to keep this success for future generational food needs.