National Desk :
Social watchdogs at a climate strike meeting here today unequivocally called for the formation of a drought fund and drought policy for the water-stressed Barind region.
They unanimously mentioned that the region has been facing multifarious crises caused by the adverse impact of climate change.
In the region, the crises of social violence, biodiversity, living and livelihood condition of people and their food security are apprehended to be due to heat, drought and water crises acute in future, reports BSS.
Bangladesh Resource Centre for Indigenous Knowledge (BARCIK) and Barendra Region Youth Forum (BYF) jointly organised the climate strike event at Shaheb Bazar Zero Point to press home their demands for formation of drought fund and drought policy.
BYF President Shaikh Tasnim Jamal and its Joint General Secretary Atikur Rahman, BARCIK Regional Coordinator Shahidul Islam, Convener of July 36 Parishad Mahmud Jamal Kadery, Executive Director of Social Welfare Organisation Samrat Raihan, President of Adivasi Juba Parishad Upen Rabidas and Youth Unit Convener of Save the Nature and Life Julfiker Ali Haider addressed the meeting.
Shaikh Tasnim Jamal opined that time-befitting measures need to be adopted urgently to boost agricultural production for ensuring food security amid the adverse impacts of climatic changes.
The ongoing climate change at alarming rates has severely affected winter vegetable farming and its diversity creating a real threat to food production, he mentioned.
The developed countries should fulfill their commitment to climate funding and ensure transparency in use of this fund.
Shahidul Islam said the legitimate rights of the farmers and others concerned should be protected rightly for the sake of encouraging them towards boosting agricultural production to meet up its gradually mounting demands.
He referred to the enormous contribution of farmers to the country’s agricultural development and said the farmers deserve the rights of getting all requisite privileges. There is no alternative to protect their interests as a whole.
In his remarks, Mahmud Jamal Kadery mentioned the adverse impact of climate change has been posing a serious threat to the overall living and livelihood condition in the region including its vast Barind tract.
He viewed the climate change has been acknowledged as the depletion of natural resources and as a major threat to the humanity in the region and urged the policy planners and others concerned to take immediate effective measures to address the adverse impact of the change caused by global warming, reports.
