Food secretary Md Kaikobad Hossain said Thursday that Bangladesh eyes becoming from a food-sufficient country to a quality producer."Bangladesh is almost food sufficient, now our target is to achieve dependable food production with quality nutrition," he said.
He revealed the vision at a workshop in the city organised by Integrated Food Policy Research Program.
This program is collaboration among the Bangladesh ministry of food, the International Food Policy Research Institute, the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. This program is a part of the ministry of food's Modern Food Storage Facilities Project, financed by the World Bank.
Mr Hossain said the government was working on building a database to bring food distribution system under online monitoring.
Director General of Directorate General of Food Md Badrul Hasan said that the country's food management systems lack necessary data.
The government is now focusing on research on food availability, access, utilization, and stability.
He said findings of research would be implemented for a better food management system, the findings of which would not be ornamental.
Calling the food storage system is age-old, Project Director of Modern Food Storage Facilities Project (MFSP) Md Gazi Ur Rahman said, "IFPRP will help the system make modern and institutional capacity will be strengthened."
He also said the program would also look into developing a private sector food storage system.
IFPRI country representative Dr Akter Ahmed and Division Director of Development Strategy and Governance (DSGD) at IFPRI Dr. Paul A Dorosh also spoke at the program.
This report was first published in The Financial Express on April 07, 2017