They said rich countries have forced poor countries to abide by their policies in the name of globalisation. WTO works as a conduit in this rgard, they claimed.

They expressed concern over gradual emergence of genetically modified foods, which would further marginalise poor farmers in developing countries and benefit multinational companies operating from developed countries.

The seminar on " Food and livelihood sovereignty: Bangladesh's task as a country", was organised by Coastal Development Partnership, Satkhira a combine of local NGOs. It was held at Satkhira Pres Club auditorium with Sheikh Abdul Wadood in the chair. Ashraful Alam Tutu, director of Khulna based NGO CDP, was the chief guest.

It was addressed by among Prof. Abu Ahmed, MA Jalil, Kazi Riaz, Rifat Amin, Kazi Saidur Rahman, Sudhangsu Sekhar Sarkar, Monzur Hossain, Musa Karim, Sirajul Islam.

They claimed that present policies of WTO would not bring any benefit to poor countries like Bangladesh. Prescriptions of the millenium development goals (MDG) will fail to reduce poverty in developing countries as those do not give any guideline to increase their exports and investments.

Developed countries are enhancing subsidy on their agriculture but pressuring developing countries to withdraw agriculture subsidy, they said.

Withdrawal of agricultural subsidy will seriously hamper Bangladesh's economy as it is still a food deficit country.

They also urged the government to increase subsidy on agriculture to boost food production.