22 april: `Safe food is equally important with food safety’-said Fisheries & Livestock Minister Nayaron Chandra Chanda, MP, in a roundtable organized by the World’s Poultry Science Association-Bangladesh Branch (WPSA-BB), held at Dhaka Regency Hotel.
Minister Chanda said, lions share of chicken meat and eggs are produced by the poultry industry which has created job opportunities all over the country therefore welfare of the millions poultry farmers should be taken care of. While responding to an allegation of importing antibiotic growth promoter (AGP) without govt. permission by some companies, minister said legal action will be taken against those violating law.
Shamsul Arefin Khaled, president, WPSA-BB said, population is increasing but arable land is decreasing. Therefore, producing enough food for people is coming challenging. He said, the govt. of Bangladesh has banned AGP in poultry feed when the leading poultry producing country like Brazil, USA and China couldn’t.
Mr. Khaled said 14 of the 17 goals of SDGs have connections with Poultry Sector, some way or other. Poultry rearing can double household income. The industry has created 6 million jobs directly & indirectly, meeting demand of animal protein, reducing poverty and discouraged rural to urban migration.
Moshiur Rahman, president, Bangladesh Poultry Industries Central Council (BPICC) said, we can’t but to increase production to feed our people. But we should concentrate to quality rather quantity and safe poultry production is one of our major goals.
Dr. Md. Ainul Haque, Director General, Department of Livestock Service (DLS) said, the department is now acting as a regulator, working with the Institute of Public Health, Food Safety Authority, FAO and the private entrepreneurs to keep poultry safe for consumption.
FAO consultant Shah Munir said, the farmers are in the hands of some middlemen therefore linkage should be established between production & marketing. Dr. Lalita Bhattacharjee, Sr. Nutritionist, FAO that the Govt. of Bangladesh is very much serious about safe food. Dr. Nitish Chandra Debnath of FAO said, DLS though looking after poultry production but it should concentrate on RisK Management. Pro Vice-chancellor of BAU Prof. Dr. Md. Jashimuddin said, Safe Feed is a must for Safe food. Feed Act has no use in practical field told Mr. Jashimuddin. O.P Singh, president, Huvepharma, South East Asia, said, it is very natural that there will be some hazards when there will be huge production but you should not be worried about it rather you need to formulate an action plan for a sustainable industry. DG, BLRI Dr. Nathu Ram Sarkar proposed that the existing Poultry Policy should be upgraded.
The speakers said that the size of economy of Bangladesh is increasing. present GDP is 7 per cent. It would be USD 3.064 trillion by 2050 as expected. Per capita yearly chicken consumption was only 6.3 Kg in 2016 which will be increased to around 45-50 Kgs in 2050. Therefore, the industry have to produce increase production of egg & chicken. They said that the problem of heavy metal has decreased significantly and Bangladesh has start producing AGP free poultry food. They proposed to allow the local companies to produce vaccines, take the backyard poultry under vaccination coverage, arrange training for the farmers as well as the DLS officials on safe food. The speakers said that antibiotic has been banned in poultry feed but there is no restriction on water soluble antibiotics.
Those who presented technical papers on day-1 are: Dr. Prof. Dr. Priya Mohan Das, Prof. Dr. Emdadul Haque Chowdhury and Prof. Dr. S.D. Chowdhury, Prof. Sukuma Saha from BAU; Prof. Dr. Syed Sayem Uddin Ahmed from SAU; Dr. J. L. Vegad from India; Dr. Hannes Meyns from Belgium and Dr. Kai-J. Kuhlmann from Germany.
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