NHRC chief advocates agri-reforms

Dhaka, Sep13 (bdnews24.com) -- National Human Rights Commission chairman Mizanur Rahman has said the government needs to enact a law to govern agriculture sector in order to provide small and marginal farmers with the required assistance.

He also advocates comprehensive reforms in the agriculture sector to ensure food security.

Rahman made the comment on Tuesday at the launch of Oxfam's new global campaign 'GROW'. The international NGO and the Campaign for Sustainable Rural Livelihoods, a local alliance working on agriculture, food security and climate change, jointly organised the programme.

Rahman, a law professor with Dhaka University, said a strong monitoring mechanism should be in place to prevent 'syndicates from manipulating food prices'.

In the context of global hunger, with about 925 million people going to sleep hungry and another billion suffering from malnutrition, the GROW campaign aims to resolve the inherent problems in global food distribution system and network.

The campaign has been designed to demand significantly higher agricultural investment to enable small and marginal farmers to produce more food.

Noting that global food production is sufficient compared to the demand, GROW also demands limiting corporate machinations, plugging loopholes in national and international policies towards a more equitable system.

Faced with challenges of global warming, GROW demands that economy and lifestyle be reformed and reconstituted towards a world more suited to adapt to the fallouts of natural disasters and climate change.

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