Hybrid vegetables take hold

http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=113544

Hybrid vegetables take hold

Sohel Parvez

Bangladesh is slowly coming out of a seasonal barrier in vegetables production mainly, helped by consistent growth in sales and cultivation of hybrid seeds that offer farmers scope to profit from off-season vegetables.

Consumers now get bitter gourd, bottle gourd, carrot, cucumber, eggplant and tomato available almost round the year at retail level. The cultivation of these vegetables had once been only seasonal, stakeholders say.

Other winter vegetables such as cauliflower and cabbage are also available for a longer period in recent years, thanks to farmers’ interests to grow hybrid vegetables of early yield varieties to have more margins.

Agriculture ministry officials say hybrid seeds cultivation at an enhanced rate has raised the production of vegetables to 29.17 lakh tonnes in fiscal 2007-08 from 16.87 lakh tonnes in fiscal 2005-06.

“It’s an achievement that has become possible mainly because of hybridisation,” said Anwar Faruque, director general of Seed Wing at the Ministry of Agriculture.

“The off-season vegetables reward farmers a higher price. For consumers, it’s an opportunity to taste vegetables without waiting for the season,” he said.

Vegetables seeds, mainly hybrid, now meet almost 40 percent of the annual demand of over 2,600 tonnes with various imported and locally innovated hybrid varieties capable of growing in off-season.

“Once most vegetables seeds had been meant for one season. But we have developed several seed varieties that can grow beyond season,” said Mahbub Anam, managing director of Lal Teer Seed, the market leader in the hybrid vegetables seed segment.

He said the hybrid vegetables seeds market now grows about 15 percent a year as it offers farmers higher yield, faster growth and better price.

“There is a good demand for a number of vegetables seeds,” Anam said, citing bottle gourd, okra, bitter gourd, radish and cucumber. “Apart from this, demand for eggplant, tomato, cabbage and cauliflower is also high.”

“In the past, farmers were not aware of vegetables economics and they were dependant on rice. Now they have realised about making more profits from vegetables cultivations,” said Anam.

Increased plantation and sales of hybrid seeds, as a result of marketing strategies of seed companies, have also led to a gradual decline in the cultivation of traditional vegetables.

“This is because farmers can get high yield by using hybrid seeds which can also be planted under different weather conditions,” said Sudhir Chandra Nath, programme manager of the agro-marketing division of Brac, which also produces and markets hybrid seeds.

Meanwhile, the Seed Wing top official at the agriculture ministry points his finger at the different taste of the off-season vegetables.

“You may not get the same taste of a winter vegetables as you taste by consuming that during summer.”

sohel@thedailystar.net

German company to invest US$ 4.5m at Adamjee EPZ

http://nation.ittefaq.com/issues/2009/11/09/news0034.htm

German company to invest US$ 4.5m at Adamjee EPZ

Business Report

German Company M/S Cancun Food Produces Limited is going to set up a High Tech Food Processing Industry in the Adamjee Export Processing Zone.

This foreign owned company will invest 4.5 million US dollar in their unit and will produce process food items.

The company will also create employment opportunity for 382 Bangladeshi nationals, a BEPZA press release said.

An agreement to this effect was signed between Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority and Cancun Food Produces Limited at BEPZA Complex here today

Md. Moyjuddin Ahmed, Member (Investment Promotion) of BEPZA and Sheikh Badal Ahmed, Chairman of Cancun Food Produces Ltd signed the agreement on behalf of their respective organizations.

Among others, Brig General Jamil Ahmed Khan, Executive Chairman of BEPZA, M. Mahbub ul Alam, Member (Engineering), AKM Mahabubur Rahman, Member (Finance), Md. Shawkat Nabi, Secretary, AZM Azizur Rahman, general Manager (Investment Promotion) and other officers of BEPZA were present at the signing ceremony.

Bangladesh readies flood-tolerant rice

http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=113006

Bangladesh readies flood-tolerant rice
3 varieties to prevent a million tonnes of crop loss a year

Reaz Ahmad

Bangladesh is set to officially release three flood-tolerant rice varieties that would help farmers prevent up to a million tonnes of annual crop loss caused by flash floods, researches said.

Officials concerned told The Daily Star that these rice varieties with submergence-tolerant gene, known as Sub1, can withstand two weeks of complete submergence.

“In September, we applied to the Seed Certification Agency for release of the three submergence-tolerant varieties, Swarna-Sub1, BR-11-Sub1, and BR-11-Recombinant-Sub1. Once the Agency completes its field evaluations, these varieties will be officially released, hopefully this year,” said Khandakar Iftekharuddaula, principal investigator of the project of Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI). The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation supports the project.

The flood-tolerant versions of the high-yielding varieties (HYVs), popular with farmers and consumers, that are grown over huge areas across Bangladesh are effectively identical to their susceptible counterparts but those recover after severe flooding to yield well.

The Sub1 varieties withstood submergence quite well during this year’s flash floods in Jamalpur’s Dewanganj, Kurigram’s Kachir Char, Mymensingh’s Dhobaura and Sylhet’s Golapganj, said Iftekharuddaula, who is the mastermind behind getting the Sub1 gene into BR-11, the country’s most popular rain-fed aman rice variety.

The Sub1 varieties have been tested in six BRRI fields and nine farmers’ fields over the last couple of years and all results show positive signs.

During a recent visit to one such field in Rangpur’s Darshona, it was found that 35 farmers on trial cultivated Swarna-Sub1 on 19 acres.

MA Mazid, former chief of the BRRI Regional Station in Rangpur, told The Daily Star that Sub1 at Darshona remained unharmed despite being completely submerged for nine to 16 days this year.

Mazid, who now heads Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia, one of the eight hubs of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), said 65 percent farmers cultivate BR-11 during aman season, which is susceptible to flash floods or rainwater over 10 days. “So the Sub1 varieties now hold the potential to become a good replacement for BR-11.”

There are four different Sub1 varieties, IR-64- Sub1, Samba Mahsuri-Sub1, BR-11-Sub1, and Swarna-Sub1, at the Darshona trial site. Of these four, the former two are relatively shorter-duration rice while the later two takes a long time to harvest.

The new varieties were made possible following the identification of a single gene that is responsible for most of the submergence tolerance. In 1995, David Mackill, then at the University of California (UC) at Davis, and Kenong Xu, his graduate student, pinpointed the gene in a low-yielding traditional Indian rice variety known to withstand floods. Xu subsequently worked as a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Pamela Ronald, a UC Davis professor, and they isolated the specific gene called Sub1A and demonstrated that it confers tolerance to normally intolerant rice plants.

David Mackill, who now heads the Plant Breeding, Genetics and Biotechnology Division of IRRI, along with Pamela Ronald visited the Rangpur site of Sub1 varieties November last year.

“The potential for impact is huge,” David said during his Bangladesh visit. “In Bangladesh, for example, 20 percent of the rice land is flood prone and the country typically suffers several major floods each year. Submergence-tolerant varieties could make major inroads into Bangladesh’s annual rice shortfall and substantially reduce its import needs.”

BRRI’s rice scientist Khandakar Md Iftekharuddaula worked as a postdoctoral fellow with Mackill and got the gene responsible for submergence tolerance into BR-11 early 2007.

Zeba I Seraj, a professor at Dhaka University’s biochemistry and molecular biology department, explained to The Daily Star how Sub1 works. “As water inundates rice fields, Sub1 gene helps rice plants remain ‘metabolically inert’ for up to two weeks; thereby, keeping the plants unaffected. But if the water remain stagnant for a longer duration, it will not be possible for the crop to withstand.”

Zeba, who has been working for years on different stress-tolerant rice varieties, said farmers would be benefited if the submergence tolerant rice varieties are released soon.

The Philippines released its first submergence-tolerant rice variety, Submarino 1, in July this year.

Grameenphone launches E-krishok tool for CIC

http://www.theindependent-bd.com/details.php?nid=148433

Grameenphone launches E-krishok tool for CIC
ECONOMIC REPORTER

Grameenphone Ltd. has launched an E-Krishok tool for the Community Information Centers (CIC).

E-Krishok is web based tool from where farmers can get the specific information on the soil, climate and fertilizer requirements for land of a specific area.

It is hoped that this tool will help to keep the farmers updated with modern agricultural technology, which in turn will help in increase agricultural production.

The tool was launched at Protappur CIC in Gazipur last week. Odd-Egil Aasen, director, Internet Services, Commercial Division; A H M Sultanur Reza, AGM, Fixed Broadband Internet, of Grameenphone Ltd; Shahroj Jalil, Group Director, Services Group, Katalyst and Shahid Akbar, CEO, Bangladesh Institute of ICT were present on the occasion, says a press release.

The nearby Haat (weekly market) of the CIC was also profiled with CIC promotional materials.

This profiling will help the local community to understand the services available at the CIC and how they can benefit from the services.

A Grameenphone Community Information Center is a shared premise where rural people may access a wide-range of state of art services such as Internet, and other web-based information services.

Grameenphone Community Information Centers are equipped with the minimum of a computer, a printer, a scanner, a webcam and an EDGE-enabled modem, to access the Internet using Grameenphone’s nation-wide EDGE connectivity.

Faster growing variety of HYV rice

http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=111710

Editorial
Faster growing variety of HYV rice
Hats off to scientists behind the development

THE agricultural scientists of the country have made a major breakthrough in developing two other types of High Yielding Variety (HYV) rice, which are especially suited to fight famine-like situation called monga in some northern districts of the country. These varieties of rice called BR-11 dhan-33 and BINA dhan-7 mature in less than four months, 115 days to be exact, and thus can be harvested one month ahead of the customary aman crop of the HYV group, namely the BR-11, which the framers have been growing since long.

This is certainly great news for the poor, landless and marginal farmers who had to remain idle for non-availability of on-farm jobs after mid-September when the aman plantation does usually end. For then usually begins the two gruelling months of monga forcing the farm labourers to eat up their food stock, sell their assets or get snared into the bondage of the loan sharks of the locality. Thus losing everything, many of them had to look for off-farm jobs in other districts.

Earlier, the government and the non-governmental Organisations (NGOs) would take various other measures to create short-term employment and launch feeding programmes to help out the people during these lean months. Against this backdrop, the newly developed HYV seed now show a more sustainable way to tackle the situation through introducing another rice cropping season before the next one begins.

Adding another crop to the existing ones will therefore not only come to the rescue of the monga-hit farm labourers, it would also go to augment the total volume of food grains produced in the country.

The scientists behind this advancement in the field of agricultural research have therefore achieved an admirable feat for which they deserve the laurels due to them. It has to be added here that through earlier discoveries in the field of rice research, the scientists had developed other HYV seeds that had gone a long way in reducing food deficit and strengthening the foundation of food security in the country.

While appreciating our scientists for their contribution to the nation in solving its overriding problems like increasing crop production and job creation, it is hoped that they would also put their talents into developing crops that can adapt themselves to the conditions of climate change now staring the nation in the face. At the same time, the government, too, should come in a big way to bolster agricultural research in all possible ways.

Tk 761cr mega plan to boost tea industry

http://www.theindependent-bd.com/details.php?nid=147662

Tk 761cr mega plan to boost tea industry
BSS, CHITTAGONG

Oct 28: Bangladesh Tea Board (BTB) has set a 12-year mega strategic development plan aiming at revitalising the tea industry in the backdrop of ever growing domestic tea consumption that leads to shrinking the export market of this traditional product considerably in recent years.

The giant development scheme titled “Strategic development plan for the tea industry of Bangladesh Vision-2021″ with an estimated cost of Taka 761 crore has been prepared in line with the government’s strategic economic outline of elevating the status of the country into a middle income by “vision-2021″.

The increased local consumption coupled with high price level compared to some tea exporting countries has caused a widespread fear of becoming Bangladesh, once major tea exporting country, into an importing one in near future if current disproportional and imbalanced ratio between local production and consumption growth continues.

BTB sources said the current annual internal consumption growth rate is 4.06 per cent against the yearly production growth of only one per cent. “If such trend with a gap of 3.06 per cent growth in local production compared with domestic consumption continues, there would be no tea ultimately in the export basket in 2016 and then we may import tea for feeding local market deficit,” Major General Mohammad Ruhul Amin, Chairman of the BTB, told BSS today.

The plan was also formulated keeping in the mind to offset the impending threat of turning Bangladesh into a tea importing country from exporting one as well as keep alive the country’s traditional agro sub-sector that fetches huge foreign exchanges annually and employs more than seven million people directly and indirectly.

The BTB chairman said the proposed plan was submitted to the Commerce Ministry last month and now under the process of approval.

The parliamentary standing committee on the Commerce Ministry was apprised formally through a PowerPoint presentation last week in Dhaka on the plan and the committee members appreciated the BTB’s initiative to vibrant the traditional and potential tea industry.

BTB sources said if the plan is approved, it would be the largest scheme for the tea sector after Taka 162 crore “Bangladesh Tea Rehabilitation Project” that was implemented between 1980 and 1992 with the financial assistance of GOB, UK’s ODA and EEC.

The scheme has been split into three time segments for smooth implementation and sustainable growth of the industry that is now the threshold of a status quo in terms of production quantity and expansion of the cultivable land and on production gardens.

Of the total estimated budget of Taka 761.60 crore, the amount to be allocated for first year (2010-2014) is Taka 302.75 crore, for next five years (2015-2019) Taka 342.97 crore and for last two years (2020-2021) Taka 115.87 crore.

Around 82.59 per cent of the total budget amounting to Taka 629.04 crore would be managed from Bangladesh Krishi Bank as loan as the bank authorities are quite satisfied with the cent per cent recovery rate of loans it gave to the tea sector.

New rice tames Monga

http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=111636

New rice tames Monga
Two short-duration varieties bring relief to marginal farmers, farm labourers in greater Rangpur

Reaz Ahmad with Rafique Sarker

Gone are the days when Monga (seasonal and localised famine) used to stalk the landless farm labourers and marginal farmers of five northern districts during the lean period of October-November each year.

Thanks to modern rice science that has bred short-duration varieties like BRRI dhan-33 and BINA dhan-7 much to the relief of over 37 lakh hard-hit poor, who have now started saying goodbye to Monga.

Both the high yielding rice varieties (HYVs) mature in 115 days and can be harvested at least a month before the other HYV — BR11– that farmers have been growing so far during aman season.

Early harvesting of the new varieties this year in as much as 44,000 hectares of land in the five Monga-prone districts of greater Rangpur has successfully absorbed the farm labourers and marginal farmers, who otherwise remain unemployed due to lack of farm activities in this lean period of the year. The five districts are Rangpur, Gaibandha, Lalmonirhat, Kurigram and Nilphamari.

On top of the rice scientists’ success in breeding short-duration varieties, non-government initiatives are also there to help farmers in the Teesta chars build ‘Rice Banks’, an innovative way of lending rice to the needy under a cooperative arrangement.

Previously, farm labourers had to remain idle for lack of on-farm jobs when aman paddy plantation ends by mid-September, and Monga forced a large number of them to leave for other districts in search of employment. By early October, marginal farmers also used to exhaust their stock of paddy for family consumption, and this forced them to starve or sell land for buying food.

Dr Md Abdul Jalil Mridha, who heads Rangpur Regional Station of Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI), told The Daily Star that efforts are on to bring over one lakh hectares of land in the five districts under short-duration rice cultivation during aman season by 2010-11. This would help the 37 lakh farm labourers and marginal farmers conquer the seasonal famine once for all.

“This will require providing the farmers with 4,280 tonnes of seeds so that they can cover 1,07,000 hectares of land, as targeted by the government, by 2010-11,” said Dr Mridha.

With support from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Bangladesh Institute of Nuclear Agriculture (BINA) in Mymensingh developed BINA dhan-7, and the variety got approval from the National Seed Board in 2007.

During a field day programme at Joyrampur Anwar village in Rangpur’s Mithapukur upazila recently, Chief Scientific Officer (plant breeding) of BINA Dr Md Ali Azam said, “BINA dhan-7 is an early harvest variety. It can be harvested in mid-October. Massive cultivation of this rice can create job opportunity for the farm labourers during October and November, thereby stumping out Monga from the region completely.”

Dr M A Mazid, who heads one of the eight hubs of the International Rice Research Institute’s flagship programme — Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA)– said the short-duration aman rice varieties hold the prospect of farmers’ growing potato right in time before they go for the next big rice season — boro.

While visiting Char Dushmara, a remote Teesta char under Kounia upazila in Rangpur, these correspondents talked to Rahima Khatun, whose husband Abdul Monnaf is a farm labourer without having any land of their own.

Rahima said unlike the Monga period in previous years, this time they did not have to go unfed as her husband cultivated short-duration aman under share-cropping arrangement in one and half acres of land. They harvested the rice a few days ago.

Her neighbour Abdur Rahman had the same happy experience to share. Rahman recalled that in the previous years he along with other villagers used to go to Bogra in search of work during Aswhin and Kartik (Monga period in Bangla calendar). This time he did not go to Bogra as he found work in his own area.

Moreover, poor people in the char areas now feel less vulnerable because of the building of ‘Rice Banks.’ Under an NGO-initiative, marginal farmers form groups of 25 people each and get a one-time rice stock of one tonne to lend to any one of them who needs it badly.

Fuad Ahmed Khan, a monitoring officer of Rangpur Dinajpur Rural Service, who overseas a climate change coping project in Char Dushmara, said each member of ‘Rice Bank’ groups can take one maund of rice as loan and return the same with two to five kg interest, as determined by the groups, when crops are harvested.

Bangladesh could reap rewards from UK curry industry

http://www.newagebd.com/2009/oct/26/busi.html#2

Bangladesh could reap rewards from UK curry industry
Bdnews24.com . Dhaka

Bangladesh could reap rich rewards by becoming a supplier for the UK’s curry industry, worth £4 billion a year and mostly run by British Bangladeshis, say industry insiders.

‘The opportunities are huge … all the inputs the restaurants need can be sourced from Bangladesh,’ Syed Nahas Pasha, chief editor of London-based Curry Life Magazine, said in Dhaka on Sunday.

Produce like vegetables, spices, rice are now mostly sourced by the UK from Indian sellers, he said.

‘The only major product that now goes from Bangladesh is shrimp and prawns.’

He added that government support is very much needed to open up a trade avenue from Bangladesh.

Pasha suggested subsidies for such exports and a cutting-edge standard testing facility for curry industry products to the UK.

Curry Life Magazine, the industry’s top title, is launching a fusion food festival at the Dhaka Sheraton Hotel, starting Monday, as it has for the past six years.

This year’s festival, however, has a special significance as the British curry industry is celebrating its 200th anniversary.

Sake Dean Mahomed, who established the Hindustani Coffee House in George Street, central London in 1809, is widely seen as the father of the industry.

In the two centuries since then, the UK curry industry has come a long way—what was once seen as exotic dining is now daily fare for the British.

The industry of about 12,000 restaurants across the UK, run mainly by Bangladeshis, has grown into a £4.2 billion industry, with curry gaining the status of a national cuisine.

Four super grade Bangladeshi chefs have come to Dhaka to take part in the three-day festival, organisers said at a press conference Sunday.

Syed Belal Ahmed, the festival director, said that they have renamed the event from this year as ‘Taste of Britain Curry Fest’ in honour of the 200-year celebration.

The first of the fusion food festivals took place in 2003.

‘This year’s focus will be on Balti Cuisine, popular dishes originating from the Birmingham area.’

Pran goes into Tk 2.60b expansion to ramp up beverage production

http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2009/10/25/82470.html

Pran goes into Tk 2.60b expansion to ramp up beverage production

FHM Humayan Kabir

Leading conglomerate Pran-RFL Group is investing Tk 2.60 billion in new beverage and packaging facilities to raise its stake in the country’s fast growing soft drinks and juice market, its deputy chief said Saturday.

Ahsan Khan Chowdhury, the deputy managing director of the fast expanding group, said the new investment is the largest by the company and it would make Pran-RFL the country’s leading player in beverage, liquid glucose and mineral water.

“It would be a separate subsidiary of the company called Mymensingh Agro Limited once its goes into production from late 2010,” Chowdhury told the FE.

“We are investing Tk 2.60 billion in the new venture. The money is being spent on setting up new beverage plant, liquid glucose, mineral water and a new packaging material plants,” he said.

Chowdhury said the company has already started construction work of the new plants on four acres of land at Kaliganj in Mymensingh.

Pran-RFL Group is one of the country’s most diversified conglomerates with interests ranging from agro-processing, food, beverages, plastics, spices, tube-wells and pumps.

The company takes pride in as the country’s pioneering agro-processed food exporter, shipping in soft-drinks, mango juice, spices and aromatic rice to 70 countries including India, the Middle East, Northern and Eastern Africa and some ethnic Bangladeshi markets in the West.

Chowdhury, the group’s young second-in-command, said the new venture is being fast-tracked as the company has been swamped by increased demand for a range of products including soft-drinks, juices and mineral water.

“Demand for our products has been growing double digit every year. Pran brands are now available in every nook and cranny of the country. And the consumers have accepted them,” he said.

“We are also getting increased export orders for our beverage products,” he said.

The new plants would produce 14 million bottles of juice, 15 million bottles of soft-drinks, 17 million kilogram of liquid glucose, 3.5 million kgs of flexible packaging materials and 0.2 million square metre of cartons, the company’s marketing director Kamruzzaman Kamal said.

The Pran-FFL Group had an annual turnover of nearly Tk 7.5 billion last year. It exported processed food worth Tk 1.50 billion during the same period.

The company has three other plants in Ghorasal in Brahmanbaria, Palash in Narshingdi and Natore where it processes food, spices, and rice and produces dairy items, juice and beverages.

The group was born in 1980 and now has 10 subsidiaries, employing more than 15,000 workers. It has emerged as the largest processors of fruits and vegetables in Bangladesh.

20pc rise in food grain output probable by using IT software

http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2009/10/22/82210.html

20pc rise in food grain output probable by using IT software

FE Report

The country’s annual food grain production can be increased by 20 per cent from its present level through the use of IT software in fertiliser recommendation, Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture CQK Mustaq Ahmed said recently.

“The country’s present production level of 20 million tons would increase by 4 million tons to 24 million tons with the use of the newly-innovated Digital Fertiliser Recommendation Software,” he said at the launching ceremony of the pilot phase of the system.

eGeneration Ltd – a leading local software company – has developed this software for Soil Resource Development Institute of the Ministry of Agriculture through which farmers can select different fertilisers and their precise dosage for different crops through a digital platform.

Using the platform, farmers can have precise fertiliser recommendations by providing five basic pieces of information – name of the crop, type of land, name of the union, upazila and district, developers of the software informed.

A central database covering the soil samples of the entire country has been developed as the feedback of the system.

“The benefit of the service is twofold – increase in yield and decrease in production cost,” Chief Executive Officer of eGeneration Shameem Ahsan said on the occasion.

New variety of paddy BINA-7 developed: 10 lakh tonnes more Aman can be grown in Monga-hit dists

http://nation.ittefaq.com/issues/2009/10/20/news0235.htm

New variety of paddy BINA-7 developed: 10 lakh tonnes more Aman can be grown in Monga-hit dists

Md Antaz Miah, a farmer of Dimla village in Rangpur seen with the fast-growing BINA-7 paddy in his field. NN photo

Shamim Jahangir from Rangpur

Farmers in eight monga prone districts will be able to produce an additional 10 lakh tons of Aman paddy within a couple years by cultivating a new variety of paddy (BINA-7) developed by the Bangladesh Institute of Nuclear Agriculture (BINA).

This was disclosed at a field level demonstration of BINA-7 at Mithapukur upazila in Rangpur yesterday.

Md Antaz Miah, a farmer of Dimla village in Rangpur Sadar told The New Nation that he cultivated BINA-7 in his several acres of land.

“I have got tremendous result from my paddy field,” he said adding that he has produced nearly 7 tons of paddy per hectare on his land.” It was only 4 tons per hectore with in traditional BRRI-33 variety from the same land last year.

Mokhlesur Rahman, another farmer in Kawnia village in Mithapukur upazila said he has been benefited by cultivating BINA-7. “Production cost of BINA-7 is comparatively lower from traditional Aman varieties as it can be produced only in 110 days.

“We need proper help from Department of Agriculture Extension officials to disseminate the variety at monga prone areas,” he said.

Scientists of Bangladesh Institute of Nuclear Agriculture (BINA), who developed the new Aman variety BINA-7, said that farmers can get an additional two tons of yield per hectare of Aman over the traditional variety.

A total of 10,000 hectares of land came under BINA-7 cultivation in eight monga prone districts this year, an official of Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) said.

“We expect to get 50,000 tons of rice from 10,000 hectares of paddy field,” he said adding that it was only 35,000 tons from the same paddy field of BRRI-33 variety on an average.”

Farmers in the monga areas will feel encouraged to cultivate BINA-7 as they are able to get yields from the variety within 110 days whereas other varieties needed 30 more days, BINA scientist Dr Md Ali Azam, who developed the variety, told The New Nation yesterday.

“I have developed BINA-7 variety in cooperation with my associate after long nine years research in BINA,” Dr. Azam said, adding that the farmers feel encouraged to produce BINA-7 as the BINA-7 has more disease resistance capacity from other Aman varieties.

He said that farmers can overcome monga by cultivating the variety as the BINA-7 can be cultivated not only in Aman season but also all over the whole year. He said that the Aman production can be raised to two crore tons by disseminating the variety. It will help ensure food security of the country, he hoped.

A total of 7, 86,885 lands came under Aman cultivation this year in greater Rangpur region, sources said.

Solar-powered irrigation pump launched

http://nation.ittefaq.com/issues/2009/10/18/news0992.htm

Solar-powered irrigation pump launched

Solar-powered irrigation pump at Kaishar Char in Savar

Staff Reporter

First ever solar-powered irrigation pump launched yesterday at Kaishar Char in Savar that will save 760MW of electricity and 800m litter of diesel in a year.

Channel I Director Shaikh Siraj and Rahimafrooz Renewable Energy Ltd Chairman Niaz Rahim jointly inaugurated solar-powered irrigation pump.

Rahimafrooz has introduced the solar-power irrigation system through converting a 10HP diesel-run irrigation pump on solar power.

The system will save 760MW of electricity and 800 million litre of diesel per year if the conventional power and diesel-run irrigation pumps are converted on solar power, speakers at inaugural function said.

Chairman of Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation (BADC)Dr Nazmul Hossain, German Technical Co-operation (GTZ) senior adviser Khurshid-ul-Islam and Program Coordinator of (GTZ) Erich Otto Gomm were present in the programme.

It is a lifetime project with one single major investment as solar panels, the major part of the system is warranted for 20 years, Niaz Rahim said.

Around 500,000 households are already enjoying the comfort solar home systems designed by Rahimafrooz, he said.

Such projects will also earn significant CDM benefits from world carbon trading market as such schemes are completely emission free, he hoped.

As the initial investment of solar irrigation systems are still not affordable by a single farmer, the government to take such projects through BADC, REB, LGED, PDB to initiate solar-based irrigation scheme.

Rahimafrooz plans to take solar pumps countrywide

http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=110181

Rahimafrooz plans to take solar pumps countrywide
Kawsar Khan, back from Savar

Rahimafrooz Renewable Energy Limited demonstrated a solar-powered irrigation pump to government officials yesterday as part of its plan to embark on installing such devices countrywide.

Rahimafrooz launched a 10-horse-power water pump in Kaishar Char village in Savar, which could pump out five-lakh-litre water a day using sunlight. It can save one-litre diesel an hour.

The renewable energy company demonstrated the pump after Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation (BADC) had sought to see such demonstrations by the private firms to examine the financial viability to deploy solar pumps for irrigation across the country.

After the function, Niaz Rahim, chairman of Rahimafrooz Renewable Energy, said the initial cost of installing the solar pump was Tk 30 lakh and is warranted to serve for 20 years without requiring any running or maintenance cost.

Even if the installation cost of a solar pump is high, there is no maintenance cost as such, which makes it cost-effective over the years it will operate.

A 10-horse-power-diesel engine consumes 1,350 litres of diesel a year and requires over Tk 3 lakh in total costs to run for one year, which does not include government subsidy on diesel.

But running a solar pump for one year costs only Tk 1.5 lakh.

Talking to reporters at the agrarian village, Nazmun Nahar, the company’s marketing and sales executive, said the pump would reduce 36 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions a year.

Through carbon trading, a pump owner will be able to earn $10 against reducing each tonne of gas emission, she said.

In a briefing on the project site, Rahim said the initial cost of setting up a solar energy pump is high, which is not possible for farmers to afford. But cooperatives and government financing can be a solution, he emphasised.

In Boro season, 1.33 million pump irrigate paddy fields in the country, with 80 percent run by diesel that consume 800 million litres of diesel a day, according to the company statistics.

The government provides Tk 5,400 million in cash subsidy on diesel-run pumps a year, according to company statistics.

But solar pumps will be able to save a huge amount of public money, company officials said.

On the issue, Dr SM Nazmul Islam, chairman of BADC, said the government would examine financial benefits of such pumps, but added that the initial installation cost is high.

About the demonstration by Rahimafrooz, he said: “Responding to our call, some other companies have also installed solar pumps to demonstrate their efficiencies.”

The company pioneered solar pumps in the country in 2004 and has since sold 10 pumps mainly to government and nongovernmental organisations.

Kawsar@thedailystar.net

Cropping pattern change can double yield in north

http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=107290

Cropping pattern change can double yield in north
Finds research

Bss, Rajshahi

Rotating cultivation of rice, wheat and other crops under bed-planting system can double the yield in the northern districts, particularly in the high and dry Barind belt, according to an on-the-ground research finding.

Agricultural scientist Dr Ilias Hossain told the news agency that optimistic results were found in the research on cropping pattern, conducted at different locations of the region over the last couple of years.

Raised beds facilitates sowing without waste of time allowing crop growth to better match water availability, said Hossain, senior scientific officer at the Regional Wheat Research Centre (RWRC) of Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute (BARI).

Under the conventional system, he said, the single largest constraint requires planting of wheat in the country late in winter, leading to a poor yield.

Sowing bed could be a good alternative to the country’s dominant wet culture, he said.

Bed planting improves water distribution and irrigation efficiency, gives better results in using fertilisers and pesticides and reduces weed infestation and crop lodging.

It saves crops from disturbance from rats, Hossain said.

The pattern helps farmers save 30 percent irrigation water and 30 to 40 percent of seeds and fertilisers.

To maintain sound soil health, he said, it could be advisable to grow rice using a different system in order to improve compatibility between monsoon rice and upland winter crops.

This would also suit the shift in economic importance toward the winter crops over monsoon rice.

The success in growing rice on raised beds in northern Australia and eastern Indonesia and high yielding irrigated wheat in Mexico, dramatically increased the use of the practice elsewhere over the last decade.

The concept, he said, was successfully tried to grow, by rotation, soybean, maize, sorghum, garlic, moog daal (a kind of pulses), cassava and rice in eastern Indonesia.

By using the new pattern of crop rotation, the huge tracts of land that remain fallow in the Barind after the harvest of transplanted Aman each year, could be used to grow wheat, followed by moog daal, by providing small irrigation facilities, said RWRC Principal Scientific Officer Dr Israil Hossain.

Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) Deputy Director Braja Haridas said the large-scale cultivation of short-duration crops like wheat and mug dal could suit crop intensity and diversification with rice-based cropping pattern.

He said rice, wheat and moog daal seed varieties developed by BRRI and BARI were given to farmers through demonstration to popularise the cropping pattern.

Flood-tolerant varieties of Aman crop this year likely

http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=106800

Flood-tolerant varieties of Aman crop this year likely
It can produce 60 lakh tonnes additional paddy
Bss, Rangpur

Large-scale farming of flash-flood tolerant varieties of Aman crop can produce an additional six million tonnes paddy annually to make the country completely self-reliant in food production and a rice exporting nation.

The authorities concerned are now in the final stage to officially release these varieties this year to enable the farmers cultivate at larger scales from the next season and produce their own seeds.

Scientists at Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) and International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) have successfully completed necessary research, experiments and validation of these new flash-flood tolerant variety paddies.

The experiments at the field levels showed that the varieties can sustain 12 to 16 days submergence paving the way for producing over 60 lakh tonnes additional paddy with average five tonnes per hectare in flash flood prone areas of Bangladesh alone.

Repeated successes in getting expected production of flood- tolerant paddy in Bangladesh and India in recent years have ushered in a new era in the disaster-prone agriculture sector of the country, sub-continent and other flood-prone countries.

The success was achieved through farming Swarna Sub1 along with three new Sub1 entries of BR11 Sub1, IR64 Sub1 and Sambamasuri Sub1 flood-tolerant varieties of paddy using participatory variety selection mother trial methods.

In Bangladesh, scientists and farmers successfully cultivated the paddy in on station BRRI Regional Station, Rangpur and on-farm farmers’ fields at Rangpur, Kurigram, Lalmonirhat, Gaibandha, Sirajganj and Nilphamari districts in the past two years.

The varieties are being cultivated successfully in Uttar Pradesh (UP), Bihar and Orissa, where Swarna Sub1 seeds were officially released by the state governments for large-scale farming. Indian union government might release these seeds very soon, too.

Scientists at BRRI, IRRI, Central Rice Research Institute and Norendra Dev University of Agriculture Technology (NDUAT) of India and University of California (UC, Davis & Riverside) developed and validated the technology.

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) provided financial assistances through IRRI to increase seed productions and disseminate the technology under its Stress Tolerant Rice for Poor Farmers in Africa & South Asia (STRASA) programme.

The scientists are hoping to overcome colossal crop losses being caused by flash floods to Aman paddy in 12 lakh hectares potential area annually in Bangladesh and 60 lakh hectares in UP, Bihar, Orissa and West Bengal by large-scale farming of these varieties.

Farmers in northern Bangladesh got desired results in farming these Sub1 entries using Developed Agronomical Management Method during past two seasons and named those ‘magical paddies’ for ‘miraculous survivals’ even after 12-16 days submergence.

Farmers Abdul Jabbar, Badsha Mian, Abul Hossain and Yasin Ali of village Jatrapur in Kurigram told BSS that their planted Swarna Sub 1 variety paddy plants successfully sustained submergence recently for 11-15 days and are growing now excellent.

Manik has cultivated Swarna Sub1 in 14 bighas and Nuruzzaman planted BR11 Sub 1 in two bighas this season and the crops show excellent growth now in Darshona of Rangpur after remaining inundated for 10 to 14 days recently.

Deputy Director General (Research) of IRRI Dr Achim Dobbermann along with Dr MA Mazid, consultant of STRASA Dr MA Bari and Head of BRRI’s Rangpur Regional Station Dr MA Jalil Mridhha visited the on-farm validation of Sub1 entries here recently.

“Last season, we have successfully cultivated these Sub 1 varieties, growing plants of which sustained strains of floodwaters for 12-16 consecutive days in northern Bangladesh, then grew well and yielded better productions,” Dr Mazid told BSS yesterday.

After conducting trials, preference analysis of Sub1 entries by farmers, extension providers, government organisations and NGOs in the flood-prone areas, BRRI scientists are hoping approval by technical committee of the National Seed Board for seed production soon.

Rangpur BRRI Station in collaboration with IRRI under Submergence and Flood Prone Environment Agriculture Project of Consortium for Unfavorable Rice Environment tested and validated flood tolerant Swarna Sub1 and BR11 Sub1 since 2005-2007.

Talking to BSS here recently, Regional Project Coordinator of STRASA Dr US Singh termed the success as epoch-making to largely increase global rice production and food security by overcoming negative impacts of ongoing climate changes.

“We have achieved huge success by developing and evaluating the advanced technology and are conducting research managements to produce seeds, quality seedlings and farming the paddy in submerged farm lands,” he added.

These four varieties were invented through introducing Gene Sub 1 by marker aided selection, a molecular breeding method, at IRRI into Indian mega variety Swarna, Sambamasuri and Bangladeshi mega variety BR11 and Philippines variety IR 64.

Under the assistances of BRRI scientists, 735 farmers have cultivated these Sub I entries in 18.65 acres in 11 upazilas of Rangpur, Kurigram, Lalmonirhat, Nilphamari, Gaibandha and Sirajganj this year where the crop successfully sustained recent flash floods.

Head of Agriculture of RDRS MG Neogi told BSS that his NGO expects to cultivate these varieties in 500 acres land involving 1,500 farmers next year against cultivation in 28 acres involving 85 farmers this year in greater Rangpur.