Agricultural policy for safe food gets cabinet nod

The cabinet on Monday approved the draft Bangladesh Agricultural Good Practices Policy, 2020 to ensure safe and quality agricultural products.

Besides, the cabinet meeting, held at the Secretariat with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair, okayed the draft speech of President Abdul Hamid to be delivered in the first session of Parliament in 2021.

Emerging from the weekly meeting, Cabinet Secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam briefed the media.

About the draft speech of the president, the cabinet secretary said ten major issues would get importance in it.

The issues include the country's overall scenario and macroeconomic condition; the government's measures and successes in improvement of the country's socioeconomic status; activities and programmes taken in different sectors to implement the Vision 2021 and formulation of the Vision-2041; local and overseas employment; and implementation of different ICT related development measures to build Digital Bangladesh, he said.

About the draft of Bangladesh Agricultural Good Practices Policy, Khandker Anwarul Islam said the policy was meant to exercise the good practices in all stages including breeding, collection, preservation, marketing and consumption.

The major objectives of the policy are to ensure sustainable production of the safe and nutritious crops, production of environment-tolerant crops and safety and welfare of the agricultural workers.

Besides, the meeting approved in principle the draft of Kurigram Agricultural University Bill, 2020 to establish the country's seventh agricultural university aiming to develop agriculture in the northern districts through research.

"It will be a prototype of the existing agricultural universities," the cabinet secretary said, adding that now there are 153 universities – 46 public universities and 107 private ones—in the country," added the cabinet secretary.

The other major issues are expansion of social safety net programmes; the progress in the trial process of war criminals; the successes achieved regarding foreign relations; the birth centenary celebration of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and programmes taken for it; and administrative policies, strategies, development philosophy and guidelines for progress, he added.

Moreover, the cabinet was informed about the measures and work-plans taken by the Local Government Division to check the Covid-19 infection.

The cabinet was also informed about the introduction of an international prize titled "UNESCO-Bangladesh Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman International Prize for the Creative Economy".

The prize will be awarded in every third year and the prize money is $50,000, added the cabinet secretary.