UNWA January General Meeting

T he January General Meeting was held at the Food and Agriculture Organization office in Dhanmondi. Vice President Rinda Maramis introduced the new Secretary, Pauline Bottrill, who has volunteered to replace Dammi Holbourne. After welcoming members and newcomers to the general meeting, Rinda handed over the meeting to the FAO Representative Ms. Bui Thi Lan, who spoke of FAO’s work in Bangladesh and introduced the speakers.

Ms. Alma Morales-Abubakar, the FAO expert on Integrated Pest Management (IPM), said the use of IPM reduced costs, increased yields and produced safe, better-tasting food.

Without IPM, the problems were numerous; workers using inappropriate pesticides succumbed to several discomforts and illnesses, and the food produced in the fields was highly contaminated. IPM has set up schools without walls in the open fields to bring home the advantages of IPM especially to women who, as Ms. Lan mentioned in her introduction, did most of the hard work and were devoted to household food security, and yet whose contribution was not recognised by the family or society. The increased participation of rural women in IPM has helped bring better pest control to the farms, Ms Morales-Abubaker said.

Dr. A.B. Siddiqui, National Project Officer on Integrated Horticulture and Nutrition Development, spoke on the status of women and children. He mentioned that 50% of children were born weighing less than 2.5 kg. Many of them suffered from malnutrition. Concentrating on landless farmers, FAO has set up an educational programme on nutrition introducing the use of vegetable soups, banana chips and the cultivation of straw mushrooms. Straw mushrooms are particularly good because they do not need much area for cultivation and are nutritious.

David Doolan elaborated on FAO’s soup programme and the importance of women’s participation in nutrition programmes.

Refreshments were served after the meeting.