RANGPUR, Jan 17, 2019 (BSS) – Agriculture experts and nutritionists at a seminar here have laid emphasis on establishing preservation facilities and consumption of dried fruits and vegetables to ensure food and nutrition security of the population.
They made these observations at the concluding function of the seminar titled ‘Prospects and role of dried fruits and vegetables for ensuring food and nutrition security in Bangladesh’ held at conference room of the Deputy Commissioner here on Wednesday afternoon.
Rangpur Regional Station of Bangladesh Institute of Research and Training on Applied Nutrition (BIRTAN) under the Ministry of Agriculture located at Pirganj organised the day-long seminar.
The regional, district and upazila level officials, experts and nutritionists of the DAE, Agriculture Information Service, Civil Surgeon Office, Department of Women Affairs, Bangladesh Rural Development Board, BADC, research institutions under the Ministry of Agriculture, teachers and researchers of different universities, representatives of different companies and national NGOs, school and college level teachers of Rangpur division participated in the seminar.
Deputy Commissioner Enamul Habib attended the seminar as the chief guest with Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) Dr Md Sarwarul Alam in the chair.
Senior Scientific Officer at Rangpur Regional Station of BIRTAN Agriculturist Dr Md Sadekul Islam delivered welcome speech narrating the goals and objectives of the seminar.
Chairman of the Department of Food Engineering and Technology of Dinajpur Hajee Muhammad Danesh Science and Technology University Professor Dr Md Sajjad Hossain Sarker delivered the keynote essay in the seminar.
Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Professor of the Department of Food Processing and Preservation of Dinajpur Hajee Muhammad Danesh Science and Technology University Dr Maruf Ahmed took part as main discussant on the keynote essay.
The chief guest put importance on preservation of additional quantities of the produced seasonal fruits and vegetables maintaining quality to meet nutritional demand of the population round the year for building a healthier and prosperous nation.
Other experts said a mammoth quantity of seasonal fruits and vegetables produced in the country are being destroyed for lack of adequate preservation faculties depriving the farmers of fair prices and causing huge losses to them.
As a result, the farmers are losing interests in farming the seasonal fruits and vegetables and their families are suffering from malnutrition for not producing those agriculture commodities in other times rather than the seasons.
Professor Dr Maruf Ahmed suggested properly preserving the additional product seasonal fruits and vegetables to consume those during the other periods of the year like in foreign countries to build a nutrition-enriched nation in future.