Mr. Chairman,
Distinguished Governors,
President of IFAD
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen

It is indeed a great pleasure for me to attend the 35th Session of the IFAD Governing Council and I would like to take the opportunity to convey my warmest congratulations to you Mr. Chairman and the members of the Bureau.

First, I would like to express my delegation’s appreciation to IFAD for selecting the important theme of this session which is not only relevant to IFAD’s field of work, but also very timely considering the present global scenario. World poverty cannot be reduced without improvement in agriculture especially small holder agriculture and we count on UN agencies such as IFAD to continue to focus on the rural poor.

Mr. Chairman,

As in many other developing countries, the agriculture sector plays a crucial role in the economy of Bangladesh. The Perspective Plan 2010-21 of the present government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, which is also known as Vision 2021, sets the target of attaining food security by ensuring 2,122 k.cal/person/day of food for all poor people and standard nutritional food to at least 85 percent of the population by 2021 and, hence, attaches high priority to agriculture.  In order to harness the potential productivity of small farms, which account for over 97 percent of farms, the government has halved the prices of non-urea fertilizers, made quality seeds available, increased subsidy on inputs including diesel, and eased credit provisions for poor farmers. The result is 33 million tons of rice and 1 million tons of wheat produced in 2011. Despite an endemic vulnerability to natural disasters, salinity intrusion due to climate change, erratic monsoon, river erosion, land degradation and a declining cultivated area, Bangladesh has nearly achieved a primary objective of self-sufficiency in rice production.

The government has taken initiatives to enhance the coverage and effectiveness of social safety-net programmes which based the principle that every citizen has an entitlement to food. The overall distribution under Public Food Distribution System in 2010-2011 stood at over 2.29 million metric tons as compared to 1.25 million metric tons in 2005-06.

In this regard, I would like to recognize IFAD’s consistent support to our agriculture sector since its inception over 30 years ago. Currently, IFAD, with a contribution of 167 million SDR, is supporting eight on-going projects focusing on agricultural technologies, access to market, infrastructure development, poor people’s access to resources, enabling poor farmers to adapt to climate change, and increasing women’s economic opportunities. These investments are all contributing to reduction in poverty at urban and rural household levels.

Mr. Chairman,

Today, re-engagement in agriculture and the rural sector is essential, not only for achieving the MDGs, but also for increasing economic growth rates in Bangladesh like in many developing countries. To be effective, however, this re-engagement will require a firm grasp of what strategies and interventions will best contribute to achieving sustainable rural development involving the rural poor not as beneficiaries, but as empowered agents of change, capable of keeping pace in a world of rapid evolution.

We hope that under the leadership of IFAD’s President, Mr. Kanayo Nwanze, IFAD will continue to work in prioritizing agriculture in development agendas. We would like IFAD to integrate the Istanbul Program of Action of the Least Developed Countries into the IFAD work plan and contribute to its implementation.

Finally, I would like to wish IFAD a great success in its endeavor to help governments fight rural poverty and support sustainable smallholder agriculture. At the same time, I would like to reassure the Governing Council that IFAD will always find Bangladesh a supporting partner.

I thank you all.

Rome 22 February 2012