The Netherlands has assured to extend knowledge and capacity building support to Bangladesh in attaining nutrition sufficiency. This was conveyed by the Secretary-General (equivalent to Secretary) of the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality of the Netherlands, Ms. Marjolijn Sonnema to the visiting high-level delegation from the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock of Bangladesh led by the Secretary of the Ministry Mr. Md. Raisul Alam Mondal at a meeting on 29 October 2018 at the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality in The Hague.
Highly appreciating Bangladesh’s robust economic growth as well as sufficiency in rice and fish production, the Secretary-General of the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture hoped that Bangladesh would soon attain sufficiency in animal protein production including dairy, poultry and meat sectors with appropriate innovations and sustainable farming techniques. Highlighting the deltaic nature of Bangladesh and the Netherlands, she also shared the Dutch experience of being a global front-runner in sustainable livestock sector development and offered assistance in terms of knowledge and capacity building support for the development of livestock sector of Bangladesh.
Bangladesh Ambassador to the Netherlands, Sheikh Mohammed Belal, while appreciating the Netherlands for its vast reservoir of knowledge, requested the Netherlands to share its knowledge and innovation insights with Bangladesh through academic collaboration, advisory services and institutional capacity building for robust development of the livestock sector of Bangladesh. Highlighting the Hon’ble Prime Minister’s special initiative ‘One House One Farm’ for poverty reduction, the Ambassador sought Dutch support to make the special initiative more robust and sustainable with knowledge support and advisory services. He urged Dutch support so that Bangladesh could provide enough milk to every child in the country.
The Secretary of the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock, Md. Raisul Alam Mondal highlighted challenges including land-scarcity, knowledge-gaps, technological insufficiency, etc. in the expansion of Bangladesh’s livestock sector. He sought Dutch support to materialize Bangladesh’s aim of a knowledge-based and technology-based comprehensive livestock sector management and development. The Secretary informed the Dutch Secretary-General about our private sector’s increasing participation in the dairy, meat and poultry production and underscored the need for the private sector’s access to the Dutch knowledge and technological know-how in the livestock sector.
Renowned Dutch government and private stakeholders like Nuffic, PUM, Solidaridaad, Catharinus Wierda, SNV, Rik Overmars etc. also participated in a brain-storming session on how a knowledge platform for livestock and dairy development in Bangladesh could be established with the Dutch assistance.
A 8-member delegation from the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock and Department of Livestock Services of Bangladesh undertook a study tour of the Netherlands from 24-31 October 2018 to gain insights from the Netherlands towards Bangladesh’s sustainable livestock sector development. The delegation expects a multidimensional project in the field of dairy and meat production to be rolled out shortly to complement Hon’ble Prime Minister’s initiatives including that of “one household, one farm”.
The world-renowned University of Wageningen and Research (WUR) of the Netherlands hosted the delegation for their weeklong visit to the Netherlands.