Staff Correspondent

Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the  United Nations is keen to enhance support in exporting mangoes from  Bangladesh to promote the product at global, regional and local levels.

"FAO will help Bangladesh to export its different seasonal fruits including  mango through their 'One Country One Priority Product' (OCOP) aiming to  optimize the production systems, minimize food loss and more efficient,  inclusive, resilient and sustainable agrifood systems", FAO representative Dr Jiaoqun Shi said here today.

He came up with this proposal while a delegation of his organization made a  courtesy call with Agriculture Advisor Lieutenant General (retd) M Jahangir  Alam Chowdhury at his secretariat office.

The OCOP, a five year programme launched by FAO in 2021, focused on supporting countries in identifying and promoting Special Agricultural Products (SAPs)with unique qualities and special characteristics that have the potential to be integrated into local, national, regional and global markets.

During the call on, they also discussed on different aspects which includes damages of agricultural crops in recent floods, technical and consulting support for development of the agriculture and export diversification of farm commodity.

In the beginning of the meeting, the agriculture advisor welcomed the FAO delegation and said: "FAO has provided support to Bangladesh on various issues...We hope that this support will continue". Mentioning catastrophic loss of agricultural products in 11 districts, out of 23 due to flood, the agriculture advisor said FAO support is necessary during the next agricultural rehabilitation programme.

Referring to FAO's continuous partnership in the development of the agricultural sector of Bangladesh, the FAO representative said, "FAO is always ready to enhance support to seed, farm technology and technical and consultation as well".

Even the FAO is providing technical support to the 'Program on Agricultural and Rural Transformation for Nutrition, Entrepreneurship and Resilience' (PARTNER) implemented by the agriculture ministry to ensure food and nutrition support to the Bangladeshi people, the FAO representative added.

The agriculture adviser also assured to provide continuous support to FAO while its representative sought for regular exchanging of different agriculture sector data between the two entities. Senior officers of the ministry and agriculture department were also present during this time.