Mahdi Hasan, BAU :
President Abdul Hamid on Tuesday said towards the agriculture graduates to work together for ensuring the food and nutritional safety of the country.
He also called upon the farmers, agriculturists and agriculture researchers to work along with the government to expedite development in agriculture sector, saying that there is no alternative to develop the agriculture and farmers to ensure sustainable growth of the country.
The president made this statement while addressing the 7th convocation of Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU) on its campus.
At the convocation, a total 4,909 students received degrees while 93 students got gold medals and 28 students received prize for their outstanding academic performance.
President Abdul Hamid said the present government has announced ‘vision-2021’ for turning Bangladesh into a middle income country by decreasing the poor people by 15 percent in which agriculture sector has the top priority.
He also said that there is no alternative to development of agriculture and farmers to ensure sustainable development in agriculture.
“It is a huge challenge for Bangladesh to face the negative impact on agriculture due to global climate change. There is a possibility of increase in salinity in coastal areas, fall of productivity, inundation of low-laying area sand major changes might take place in the lifestyle of the people in the region,” he said.
He went on saying, “Keeping the matter into consideration, we have to strengthen research activities with a view to developing salinity tolerant varieties of crops, particularly rice. We have to keep in mind that the country’s overall development depends on the development of agriculture.”
Lauding the role of agriculturists, especially the BAU graduates for the development of the potential agriculture sector, the President appreciated the Inter-Disciplinary Centre for Food Security (ICF) that offers post graduate degrees on food safety and sustainable agriculture, one of the recent major BAU research initiatives.
He also said that establishment of ‘Haor and Char Development Institute’ has just started and development works of ‘Marine Fisheries Field Laboratory and Education Center’ indicate the dynamicity of the university.
Religious Affairs Minister Principal Motiur Rahman, University Grants Commission Chairman Abdul Mannan and Vice-Chancellor of BAU Prof Dr Md Ali Akbar also spoke on the occasion. Vice-Chancellor of University of Asia Pacific Prof Dr Jamilur Reza Choudhury delivered convocation speech.