Prologue

The global ‘World Food Day 2016: Children’s Poster Competition’, challenges children and young people to apply their imagination and creativity to this year’s World Food Day theme – “Climate is changing. Food and agriculture must too”. FAO Representation in Bangladesh organized a children’s poster contest on 02 September at Rajshahi Education Board School and College in Rajshahi as a national contest on the same theme.  The winning entries from Bangladesh will be submitted to the global contest. The final results will be announced on the World Food Day website and through FAO social media during the official celebration of World Food Day in Rome on 14 October 2016. Winners will also be promoted by FAO offices around the world, featured in an exhibition at FAO headquarters in Rome during World Food Week (10-16 October 2016).

Event Report

Inaugurating the Bangladesh Children’s Poster Contest 2016, Mr Mohammad Fazlur Rahman, local Additional Director, Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), Rajshahi said “This year’s theme of World Food Day 2016 – Climate is changing. Food and agriculture must too is very much relevant to the changing global scenario, to Bangladesh, and particularly to the Rajshahi Barendra tracts. While climate change is affecting the planet, adapting to the change leads to us having to customize the way we grow food.  39% of total Rajshahi region suffers from high temperature and minimum rain fall. Crop zoning and a long term solution to address water scarcity are much needed now. I welcome this great initiative by the Government of Bangladesh and FAO-UN to shed light on this issue, especially with the participation of such a great number of the children from the region”.

With evident enthusiasm, a total of 750 children (250 from each of three age groups) from 102 schools in Rajshahi, 300 guests and parents, top government officials, 50 student volunteers, 30 management team members and 7 FAO staff with support from Regional and local administration and police security, took part in the competition.

“The purpose of today’s event was to create widespread awareness among the children about the ramifications of climate change in the country as well as around the planet. Climate change is making the world hotter, drier, and rainfall less predictable; it is also behind more extreme weather events in some parts of the globe. All of these are making it more difficult to grow food, and in order to survive, our agricultural practice must adapt to the change. But with the help of the scientists, and support from the Ministry of Agriculture, we can well adjust to the present circumstance like we have been doing for past 45 years. I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the notable guests, participants and all the support assistance from the stakeholders in making our event a major success” said Mr Mike Robson, FAO Representative in Bangladesh. 

Expressing his optimism for Rajshahi, a region notorious for extreme weather, Mr Abdul Hannan, Divisional Commissioner, Rajshahi region said that the massive crowd, present here, surely helped to draw everyone’s attention to the emerging issues of climate change. He said that the combination of encouraging children’s artistic endeavors and getting the awareness message across the table to the government and private stakeholder has been nicely done by this year’s FAO Poster Competition.

Mr Nazmul Islam, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) and Chief Guest of the main event said “Children’s drawing contest is one of the many initiatives taken every year on the occasion of World Food Day. I believe that practicing arts can help a child to become a better person, and more aware human being in process, particularly when it focuses on such particular issue likes of global warming and climate change. We are losing 0.7% agricultural land every year while population is increasing, and is expected to reach 200 million by 2050.Despite the odds, we managed to achieve a food surplus, and even export some food including vegetables to other countries in small quantity.  The nature of food consumption in the country is changing – adding more nutritious items to the plate. Our agriculture related exercises need to keep up with the same pace in ensuring stability and long term success”. 

Closing the ceremony, Mr Hamidur Rahman, Director General, Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) and Chair of the session noted the major female participation at the drawing competition (and among the winning entries) and congratulated all the children participants for their beautiful artworks on the theme of World Food Day 2016 – “Climate is changing. Food and agriculture must too”. He hoped that the importance of the theme will make everyone, children in particular ponder about the environmental issues that we are facing today and how it is shaping our agricultural approach - as they grow.  Director General, DAE stressed “the bond between agriculture and women has been strong since ancient times. Women have been making an undeniable contribution from food production to food processing in the country since the beginning. Hence, it is pivotal that we communicate knowledge of ‘climate change related issues and it’s correlation with the shifting pattern of farming’ to the female farmers of Bangladesh with great emphasis.”

Later, gift hampers including FAO nutrition plates, WFD branded mugs and certificates were handed over to nine(9) winners – three winning entries from each age groups (5-8, 9-12, 13-19 yrs.) by FAO Representative in Bangladesh and high level government officials. Additionally, sixty (60) consolation prizes and eighty one (81) special consolation prizes were also distributed among the children across the age groups for their paintings as honorable mentions. 

This major annual event was also joined by Ms Maksuma Akter Banu, Deputy Secretary, MoA, Ms Mosammat Mustari Khanaum, Senior Assistant Secretary, MoA,  Mr Kazi Ashraf Uddin, District Commissioner, Rajshahi, , Additional Director, DAE Office, Rajshahi, Deputy Director, DAE, Rajshahi and others key officials from relevant government line agencies.

Media Link(s):
http://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2016/09/04/students-raise-voice-climate-change/