The number of hungry people in the world is 84 crore and 300 crore people, out of 500 crore in the developing world, are deprived of fundamental rights to food, water, shelter and health care, said Agriculture Minister MK Anwar.

The agriculture ministry organised the discussion in the city on the occasion of World Food Day-2004. The slogan of the day is 'Biodiversity in Food Security'.

To attain food security, there must be a consistency between the demand and supply in keeping with the people's purchasing capacity, the minister said.

He underscored the diversified cultivation of crops to ensure food security.

Prof AKM Nazrul Islam of Dhaka University presented the keynote paper.

Conservation of biodiversity is a prerequisite for food security, said Syed Ataur Rahman, additional secretary of the agriculture ministry.

Prof Lutfur Rahman of Bangladesh Agricultural University identified population explosion, unplanned development, silt deposition in rivers, unusual floods and absence of protective measures as some of the factors contributing to the loss of biodiversity.

"A total of 162 plant species and 200 forest species are used for food and other purposes," he said.

The government must take into account nutrition quality, water supply, market opportunity, land reform and investment to harvest handling and IT system to ensure sustainable food security by 2020, he added.

Producing food items of livestock origin is an important means of ensuring food security, said Prof Fazlul Haque Bhuiyan. "The government must protect all the indigenous sources of food generation."

"Instead of imported genetically modified (GM) technology and hybrid crop species, we have to make use of local and environment-friendly species through our own research work," said State Minister for Agriculture Mirza Fakrul Islam Alamgir.

"By resorting to indiscriminate and excessive extraction of natural resources, we are virtually destroying the biodiversity and ecological balance," said Fisheries and Livestock Minister Abdullah Al Noman.

"Unplanned and indiscriminate cultivation of some exotic species has led to the extinction of a number of indigenous crops," he said.

Deputy Minister for Food and Disaster Management Asadul Habib Dulu, Agriculture Secretary ASM Abdul Halim, and Representative of the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) Bui Thi Lan also spoke.