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$a Bangladesh, with 120 million people, and still growing has an actual per capita vegetable consumption of 40 g/head per day. This is far below the daily requirement of 200 g/head per day. Over 1 million tons of vegetables produced from 152.000 ha land area is not enough to meet the required consumption.
Considering the country's limited arable areas for vegetables, production should be maximized through improved farming systems to achieve a tenfold increase in production in order to keep pace with increasing population in the country.
Enhanced vegetable production shall answer the country's nutrition deficiencies; promote more business; generate wider employment opportunities; and women empowerment. This could be attained if proper farm inputs such as good quality seeds, fertilizers, integrated pest management, irrigation, and post harvest facilities are put in place. Proper training, availability of credit facilities, and networking with other countries are essential to bolster the country's marketing setup. Vegetable-based agribusiness is a step to raise the level of managerial skills among the producers. This could also pave the way towards a balanced distribution of both fresh and processed vegetables in the country.
Promoting vegetable research that makes nutritious vegetables physically and economically available to the consumers and profitable to the producers in fact, builds the foundation for national development. This scenario has spurred AVRDC, BARC, and BARI to organize a workshop on vegetable crops agribusiness funded by the USAID held on 2-4 May 1995 at BARC, Farmgate, Dhaka, Bangladesh. The workshop convened researchers, extension workers, farmers, seed producers, businessmen, government and nongovernment organizations to examine different areas in vegetable production; identify and analyze problems; and formulate goals, solutions and action plans thereof to help vitalize and boost both production and consumption of vegetables and augment financial benefits.
AVRDC, having several years of collaboration with Bangladesh, shall continue to play a catalytic role in strengthening the country's agricultural system.
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