"We commend the progress the country has made in production of cereals, particularly rice," said Jacques Diouf, director general of United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), at a press conference last evening at the end of his two-day visit here.

Earlier in the day, during a meeting with the food and disaster management minister, Diouf said his organisation has taken up a plan involving $20,000 under the comprehensive disaster management programme to build up food security in the country.

The other objectives of the plan include post-flood rehabilitation, awareness creating and training programmes, and dairy-poultry farming. He also told the minister that FAO would look into the water issue, as the country is facing serious problem from arsenic contamination.

At yesterday's news conference, the FAO chief particularly warned of a looming severe scarcity of cultivable land, which has been decreasing by 1 percentage point every year in inverse relation to the rise in population. Construction of roads, bridges and other infrastructure, buildings and village huts, all nibble away the arable land, he pointed out.

According to Diouf, the rapid growth of population, which by 2050 would be twice the size of the present one, is a major issue the country has to address urgently. And, towards that end, the government should seek bilateral and multilateral assistance from donors, he said, adding FAO could help Dhaka getting the funds.

The FAO chief executive said, "The country has no alternative to increasing budgetary allocation for agricultural production as well as enhancing investment," and maintained that the donors too should increase allocation in this area.

Responding to a query on possibility of any special assistance from the FAO to check the devastating flooding that ruins a huge amount of standing crops every year, Diouf said the countries of the region should develop regional co-operation in using and sharing river water.

"Regional co-operation is required for flood management, as flooding is a common problem of other countries if this region," he said.

Diouf was of the opinion that the problem of flooding is also related to investment, as a huge investment is required to dredge riverbeds regularly. To do that he suggested the government to seek combined assistance from the donors including the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the European Development Fund.

During his visit, the FAO DG met the president, the prime minister and the foreign, agriculture and environment ministers, besides many government and donor officials and discussed various aspects of the UN assistance to Bangladesh.