Against the demand of around 1.57 core metric tonnes, Bangladesh's local milk production has now raised at around 1.41 crore tonnes. In this situation, rest of the demands including the demands of baby food are met by importing from abroad, according to a keynote of a seminar held in Dhaka on Monday.
Fisheries and Livestock Journalists Forum (FLJF) organized the seminar at Jatiya Press Club. FLJF President MA Jalil Munna Raihan presided over the seminar while General Secretary Zahidur Rahman moderated and Organising Secretary Bayezid Munshi presented the keynote.
Fisheries and Livestock Adviser Farida Akhter attended the event as chief guest while Acting Secretary to the Ministry ATM Mosataf Kamal, Director General of Department of Livestock Services (DLS) Dr. Md. Reazul Haque, LDDP Project's Project Director Dr. MA Salek also some root-level farmers also spoke.
Urging the authorities concern to prohibit the import of milk and milk powder to protect the interest of country's farmer, adviser Farida Akhter said that import dependency must be stopped.
"Milk and milk powders are being imported from different countries to meet up the country's additional demand. But, import dependency should be stopped. If the dependency on import continues, the sources of milk production like cows and goats will be destroyed. That's why foreign and import dependency and technologies should be changed. We want to change the policy of import dependency," she added.
She also urged the media to present actual facts in their reports, so that the people in the fisheries and livestock sectors who were victims of discrimination can get justice.
"The demands of protein of the country is usually met from the fisheries and livestock sectors. If the people in this sectors are not recognized duly, if would be hard for them to survive," she added.
