Experts at separate field level learning tours have stress for expanded adoption of Conservation Agriculture (CA) technologies to increase wheat production at lower cost for ensuring food security under adverse climate.
They said this at several learning tours organised for the farmers today and yesterday at different places in Rangpur, Kurigram, Dinajpur and Nilphamari districts under the Rangpur Hub of Cereal System Initiatives for South Asia in Bangladesh (CSISA- BD).
The CSISA-BD Project under technical assistances of International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) and financial cooperation of USAID organised the tours to educate farmers the latest wheat and maize farming technologies.
The visiting team included Extension Agronomist of CSISA- CIMMYT Anarul Haque, its Agriculture Development Officers (ADO) Reazul Haque and Mani Krishna Adhikary, ADO of CSISA-IRRI Project Sobhan Hossain and Rangpur Hub Administrative Officer Ershadul Islam.
Executive Director of Solidarity Harun Ar Rashid Lal, Shahnaz Begum of Sanu Memorial Trust and a large number of wheat growers of different districts participated in the field level technology learning tour.
The experts visited growing high yielding BARI Gom 26 (UG 99) variety wheat fields cultivated, using CA-based technologies, by farmers Tozammel Haque, Abdur Razzak Akand, Sabitri Rani, Nurun Nahar, Bablu Sheel and Abdul Mannan in different areas.
The farmers narrated as how they got the stem rust resistant variety BARI Gom 26 wheat seeds and sowed those adopting bed planting, strip tillage and reduced tillage methods using Two- wheel Tractor Operated Seeder and Bed Planters.
They explained advantages of CA-based technologies and hoped for bumper wheat productions in the rice-wheat- mug bean/jute cropping pattern this season at much lower cost that the traditional cultivation methods.
The experts stressed for priority on helping farmers in reducing production costs and increasing crop intensifications and addressing the adverse impacts of climate change by adopting the latest proven CA- based technologies.
They said all partners from public, private, NGOs, local service providers and farmers are the pillars of the project and they need to actively participate and go altogether for delivery of the technologies so that cost of wheat cultivation reduced.
Anarul Haque narrated the delivered technologies so far including machineries and devices and elaborated as how farmers are being benefited through CA- based minimum tillage or zero tillage, bed-planting of wheat seeds in the region.
The technologies will increase wheat yields at reduced cost, save water, fuel, facilitate crop intensifications, quality seeds and better germinations with residual moistures, planting machine prototypes, inputs and remunerative markets,” he added. BSS
