http://www.bssnews.net/newsDetails.php?cat=0&id=151078&date=2010-12-21
Bangladesh can save Tk 600 cr annually using CA-based technologies in wheat farming: Scientists
Mamun Islam
RANGPUR, Dec 21 (BSS) – Scientists at a traveling seminar here today said that adoption of the Conservation Agriculture (CA)-based technologies could increase wheat productions at low costs saving Taka 600 crore annually in Bangladesh.
They emphasised on the need to prioritize sustainable disseminations of these proven technologies and mechanization of agriculture to increase crop intensifications amid adverse impacts of ongoing climate changes.
The comprehensive package of CA-based technologies will increase crop yields at reduced costs, save water, fuel, ensure quality seeds and better germinations with residual moistures, planting machine prototypes and inputs, they said.
They said this at the traveling seminar while visiting wheat fields being cultivated by the farmers under the assistances of Dinajpur Hub of Cereal System Initiatives for South Asia (CSISA) at Chengmari and Mominpur villages in Rangpur.
Senior Scientist of Global Conservation Agriculture Programme of International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) Dr M.L. Jat from New Delhi and Dinajpur Hub Manager of CSISA Dr MA Mazid conducted the seminar.
The team also observed the ongoing CSISA-IRRI-CIMMYT activities for dissemination of the CA-based agriculture technologies and devices in usable forms to the farmers at the grass roots.
The scientists visited the wheat fields cultivated using the CA-based technologies by farmers Ahsan Habib, Abdul Monnaf, Abul Kalam, Hossain Ali, Mrs. Ivy Begum, Abdul Motaleb, Abed Ali, Abdul Mannan in the villages in Rangpur.
The farmers narrated as how they got the quality high yielding wheat seeds including BARI-26 variety wheat and sowed those using Power Tiller Operated Seeder and Power Tiller Operated Bed Planters with the help of Two-Wheel Trucktors.
Dr Mazid narrated the ongoing CSISA activities including familiarization of the CA-based technologies in Dinajpur Hub domain to increase crop yields at reduced costs through public-private partnerships and GO- NGO collaborations.
He informed that the CA-based technologies including minimum or zero tillage, bed planting of wheat and other seeds and proper usages of the machineries and devices for system-based crop diversification and sustainable agriculture are becoming popular.
Dr M.L. Jat said that Bangladesh could be benefited by Taka 200 crore by saving wheat seeds and farming costs and producing additional two-lakh tonnes wheat worth Taka 400 crore from 4.15 lakh hectares land annually adopting the CA-based technologies.
Large-scale adoption of the proven CA-based technologies and machineries in the easiest forms could substantially increase crop productions to ensure food security and improve the environmental and eco-indexes including soil health, he told BSS.
