The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations and the Ministry of Agriculture recently organised a workshop aimed at encouraging increased investment in the crop sector.
The validation workshop titled “Priority Investment Plan-Crop Sector (PIP-CS:2024-2030)” brought together multiple stakeholders including private sector, development partners, government, researcher, academia and civil society organisations.

Wahida Akter, secretary, Ministry of Agriculture, participated in the event as the chief guest and Jiaoqun Shi, FAO representative in Bangladesh was the guest of honour. The workshop was hosted by Dr Shaikh Mohammad Bokhtiar, executive chairman of Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC).

Wahida Akter said “We work together with FAO towards transforming the crop sector in Bangladesh to achieve the national development goals in implementation of the National Agricultural Policy.”
Jiaoqun Shi said “FAO is happy to support the preparation of the priority investment plan for the crop sector, providing technical assistance under FAO’s flagship hand-in-hand initiative.”
In preparation of this validation workshop, about 700 local stakeholders from the private sector, civil society, researcher, non-state actor and academia participated in regional consultations conducted by the agriculture ministry in collaboration with FAO in Dhaka, Rajshahi, Barisal, Cumilla, Jashore, and Mymensingh in July and September 2022.

These consultations identified four priority investment areas: agro-processing, value addition and marketing; specialised, multipurpose cold storage, post-harvest management, supply chain management; irrigation and water management (IWM); and climate smart agriculture (CSA).
By prioritising these actions, the government aims towards enhancing farmers’ income, protecting consumer’s health and the environment, enhancing growth in its agricultural sector and thereby contributing towards meeting the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.