Staff Reporter:
Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives Minister Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has said ensuring food security for the country’s people remains a major challenge and stressed the need for more investment in agricultural research to achieve that goal.
He made the remarks while addressing an orientation program of the freshers at Sher-e-Bangla Agricul-tural University (SAU) in the capital yesterday.
The minister said pursuing agricultural studies does not necessarily mean the graduates must seek gov-ernment jobs.
“Instead of finding their own employment, the graduates should create job opportunities for others by launching businesses, industries and technology-based ventures linked to agriculture,” he said.
He described the agricultural students as the ‘fellows very close the country’s soil’ saying they should move beyond the traditional pursuit of government job, rather make stride to establish agro-based indus-tries.
Urging the freshers to become entrepreneurs, he encouraged them to build careers through agro-based industries, agribusiness and innovative agricultural initiatives.
“The country’s agriculture sector has enormous potentials. If young people come forward as entrepre-neurs, they can generate employment while making a significant contribution to the national economy,” he said.
Mirza Fakhrul alleged that the government is facing enormous challenges because of the country’s eco-nomic foundations were severely weakened during the previous 15 years under the “fascist government.”
“Institutional structures have also been damaged. The government is working to rebuild the country by overcoming these crises. Our primary objective is to reconstruct the fragile economy and social order,” he said.
The minister said Bangladesh has around 40 million educated unemployed youths, with 500,000 to 600,000 applications being submitted for a single job in many cases.
“This problem cannot be solved overnight. We must restructure our system through proper planning and develop a skilled workforce capable to contribute to the economy. The government is now giving the highest priority to it,” he added.
Speaking at the program, Prime Minister’s Education Adviser Dr. Mahdi Amin said Sher-e-Bangla Agri-cultural University has made significant contributions to increase agricultural production and advancing agricultural research in the country.
He hope that the newly admitted students would play an important role in building food-security and build a self-reliant Bangladesh.
SAU Vice-Chancellor Dr. Md. Abdul Latif presided over the function while Anisur Rahman, MP, from Madaripur-3 constituency, reserved seat MP Sanjida Islam Tulsi were present among others.
