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Speakers urged for knowledge dissemination of Bangladesh GAP
Dhaka Chamber of Commerce & Industry (DCCI) in cooperation with USAID’s Agriculture Value Chain (AVC) Project organized a seminar on “Knowledge Dissemination on Bangladesh GAP”. The meaning of GAP is Good Agricultural Practice.
Good Agricultural Practice (GAP)is an internationally practiced method to ensure safe and sustainable agriculture production. GAP is a set of principles, regulations and technical recommendations applicable to production, processing and transporting addressing human health care, environment protection and improvement of working conditions.
Similar to international global GAP, Department of Agriculture Extension is trying to establish Bangladesh GAP in the country to increase our agro export. In vegetable production Bangladesh is 3rd in the world, in rice production Bangladesh is 4th, potato is 8th, mango is 7th, tea is 4th, fruit is 28th. 100 types of fruits and vegetables are being exported to 40 countries mainly to Middle East and Europe. Demand of safe and quality food produced under GAP have been increasing day by day.
Chief of the Seminar Dr. Md. Abdur Rouf, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture said we are moving to traditional agriculture to commercial agriculture. We have a plan to double our agriculture production by 2030. He said for export diversification, agriculture is one of our best option. And for export competitiveness GAP is must for agriculture. He said in 2016-17 our vegetable export was US$81.03 million and export of agricultural products was US$553.17 million. Our Agriculture Policy to be passed soon where GAP is included, he informed. In the new Agriculture Policy emphasis was given on value added crops production and land zoning, he said.
KrishibidKazi Md. Saiful Islam, Additional Director, Department of Agricultural Extension presented the keynote paper. He said internationally GAP is practiced for safe food. He said our farmers are not very much aware of GAP as well as we have shortages of GAP auditors, trainers, technology, certification bodies and testing laboratories. He said GAP is essential not only for agriculture export but it is now a demand of local market as well. We need to strengthen our certification body. For capacity building, private sector, Department of Agricultural Extension, Ministry of Agriculture, Bangladesh Agriculture Research Council and all concerned stakeholders need to act pro-actively to make GAP familiar to our farmers.
DCCI Director Imran Ahmed in his welcome address saidin Bangladesh, the contribution of agriculture in GDP is 14.75%and it employs 40.6% (around 24.5 million people) of the total employment. To enter into the world market especially the European and US market, Good Agriculture Practice (GAP) and other standards need to be strictly maintained.The rampant use of pesticides and insecticides during production, use of ripening agents and use of formaldehyde make the crops unsuitable for human consumption. Lack of cold storage, transportation bottlenecks, post-harvest loss, poor packaging, lack of processing, quality control, laboratories, warehousing facilities are some of the challenges in implementing GAP.
Special Guest Md. Azahar Ali, Additional Director, Department of Agricultural Extension said adequate trainers, auditors and strengthening certification bodies are most important for ensuring Bangladesh GAP.
DCCI Secretary General A H M Rezaul Kabir gave vote of thanks. He said that in implementing Bangladesh GAP, DCCI will play its forefront role along with Department of Agricultural Extension and Ministry of Agriculture.
Published on: 2018-06-28