Make SAARC food bank functional: PM

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina said on Saturday Bangladesh had offered one lakh metric tonnes of food grains to the earthquake-ravaged Nepal.‘I have told Nepal’s prime minister I would be able to provide 1 lakh metric tonnes of food,’ she said while inaugurating the South Asia Right to Food Conference 2015 at Krishibid Institution at Khamarbari in the capital.
She said Bangladesh had already sent 10,000 MT of food to Nepal after the deadly earthquake ‘which has taught us a lot and underlined the need of regional food security.’
The prime minister said that there might be differences on issues of political development and advancement but the differences should not turn into violence like burning of grain silos, uprooting of rail tracks and hindering food transport.
‘Transport workers, passengers, women, children should not be burnt to death [in political violence] that Bangladesh witnessed a few months ago,’ she told the conference.
She urged the South Asian leaders to establish long coveted SAARC Food Banks throughout South Asia effectively as soon as possible.
Hasina said that the food produced in the world was enough for meeting the need of its population but unfortunately it was not happening. ‘Food availability is influenced by different factors, including poverty, faulty economic and distribution system, clashes, over-population, food and agriculture policies and climate change.’
Nobel peace laureate Kailash Satyarthi said right to food was inter-related with right to inclusive development and right to education that empower and enlighten people in many ways, including increasing their personal income and reducing malnutrition.
He said that five years of education helped a man to increase his production by 20 per cent.
The Nobel laureate called for establishing an effective food bank and a knowledge bank comprising both intellectuals and indigenous people to fight against hunger.
Presided over by Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation chairman Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad, the inaugural ceremony was also addressed by food minister Md Qamrul Islam, Dhaka University vice-chancellor AAMS Arefin Siddiqui and Nepal’s Right to Food national coordinator Sarba Raj Khadka.

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