Crop museum has become an effective tool for reaching and disseminating modern farming technologies to the grassroots farmers side by side with a successful expansion of various cash crops in the high Barind tract.
Adjacent farmers can easily visit the highly managed small demonstration plots of various developed crops in the museum and become encouraged to apply those in their fields.Agricultural scientists and researchers revealed this while visiting a crop museum accumulating various crop varieties at Kodom Sohar under Godagari Upazila of the district yesterday.They also addressed a field day on the crop museum in the same area.The museum, established on around 36 decimal lands beside the Rajshahi- Kakonhat road, has 48 proven varieties of 26 crops like oilseed, vegetable, spice and food grains developed by Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute (BARI).On Farm Research Division (OFRD), Barind Station of BARI developed the
crop museum and also organized the field visit and field day programmes, where more than 300 farmers both males and females were present.Purpose of the Living Crop Museum is to serve as a learning resource for the adjacent farmers who are able to observe the growth and development of each crop.
It includes many commercial crops grown in the Barind area and other parts of the region. Most crops are represented by only one type or variety.
Some crops, such as oilseed and grain, are represented by a series of varieties demonstrating the natural variability of the crop as well as man’s influence on the crop over several years.The museum is open to the public without charge. Any group or individual is welcome to utilize this resource.
Director (Research and Communication) of BARI Dr Mukhlesur Rahman and Deputy Director of Department of Agriculture Extension Nurul Amin spoke on the occasion as chief and special guests respectively with BARI Principal Scientific Officer Dr Shafiqul Islam in the chair.During his welcome speech, Dr Abdus Salam, OFRD’s Senior Scientific Officer and Barind station-in- charge, highlighted the significance of the crop museum and gave an overview of the ongoing activities and successes.He said that the museum has created a positive impact in the area, encouraging a large number of farmers to grow such grains and vegetables as well as other crops by using the modern method.Dr Mukhlesur Rahman hoped that the crop varieties through the museum
would bring a positive result for the farmers in the rain- fed drought prone area.He further said the agriculture system in the drought-prone Barind
tract has started facing problems due to multifarious reasons including the adverse impact of climate change.So, there is no way but to adopt modern technologies to save farming in order to ensure food security.Dr Rahman advised development and dissemination of appropriate modern technologies to enhance farm production.Dr Israil Hossain, principal scientific officer of Regional Wheat Research Station, said irrigation has been reduced to a greater extent in the Barind region resulting in a decline in Aman farming.To address the problem, the BARI has taken an initiative to launch more drought-tolerant wheat, mug-bean and other cereal crop varieties. Farmers are switching from cultivation of paddy to less irrigation- dependent cereals in the wake of water-stress condition caused by adverse impact of climate change in the high Barind tract.Farmers have reduced the cultivation of irrigation-dependent crop especially Irri-Boro paddy in the drought-prone Barind tract, known as the country’s food storage. On the other hand, farming of various crops like wheat, mustard, maize and potato is gradually increasing in the area.Principal Scientific Officer of Fruit Research Center Dr Alim Uddin, Site Coordinator of Krishi Goveshona Foundation Rabindra Kumar Mazumder and Executive Director of Prova Abu Muhammad Musa also spoke. -BSS, Rajshahi
