Bangladesh’s current government is placing strong emphasis on transforming agriculture through technology, with Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus highlighting the need to follow advanced models such as that of the Netherlands, according to Shafiqul Alam, Press Secretary to the Chief Adviser.
Speaking at a conference at the Cirdap in Dhaka, Alam said Bangladesh can double or even triple agricultural output despite limited land, but stressed that higher production is meaningless unless small farmers receive fair prices. He warned that sudden bumper harvests often lead to price crashes, leaving farmers unprotected.
To address this, he called for village-level cold storage, modern preservation systems, new market access, and export pathways, saying these would help farmers withstand global supply shocks.
Alam noted that agriculture, politics and global trade are tightly interconnected. He cited the China–US soybean dispute, during which Bangladesh imported American soybeans and consequently gained goodwill from a major US farm lobby — a new form of foreign policy leverage.
He added that Chinese investors have shown strong interest in Bangladesh’s jute sector, including joint ventures, technology transfer, and modern processing facilities. If realised, this could create new jobs, boost exports, and revitalise the entire jute value chain. Traditional jute retting, however, remains a barrier due to its laborious nature, reducing farmer participation.
Chinese companies, he said, are exploring opportunities to process one million tonnes of jute, producing biofertiliser, energy, and affordable plastic alternatives — potentially restoring Bangladesh’s prominence in global jute markets.
Alam also warned about Bangladesh’s current 6–8 million-tonne food deficit, noting that global instability — from the Ukraine war to Middle East tensions — could disrupt essential imports. He urged expanding national grain storage capacity from 2 million tonnes to 5 million tonnes to ensure food security.
He criticised unplanned rural housing that destroys farmland, leaving villages with empty houses while cultivable land shrinks. Planned rural development, he argued, is essential for long-term food security.
Alam concluded that Bangladesh’s future is inseparable from agriculture: regardless of who forms the next government, food self-sufficiency, surplus production, and farmland protection must remain national priorities. With focused effort over the next decade, he said, Bangladesh can make substantial progress — even if it never fully replicates the Dutch model.
The remarks were delivered during the four-day conference “Investment in Agriculture and Food: Quality Agricultural Inputs, Processed Products, and Building Value Chains for Commercialisation,” organised by the Bangladesh Agricultural Journalists Forum.
