New breakthrough in agriculture research

Bangladesh needs to develop sophisticated laboratories where scientists can spend time for making important discoveries like the one by Dr. Mohammad Tofazzal Hossain

It is highly satisfying to know that Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) scientist, Dr Mohammad Tofajjal Hossain, has discovered a new species of novel endophytic bacteria called Bacillus oryzicola. According to a report published in this newspaper, out of 299 species of the Bacillus groups, only 30 species are novel and the newly discovered Bacillus oryzicola occupies the 31st position. Congratulations Dr. Hossain!
This new species of bacteria helps in increasing rice yields by controlling major diseases and promoting the plant growth. It is now expected that Bangladesh would gain practically soon utilising the recent discovery.  
However, it would have been still more enjoyable for us to know had Dr Mohammad Tofajjal Hossain achieved this feat in a Bangladesh agricultural lab rather than the Gyeongsang National University in South Korea where he researched for the last five years to discover the bacteria. Our scientists often go to work in the laboratories of other countries because laboratories in Bangladesh are not rich with equipment.  There is also a dearth of efficient scientists in the country’s existing laboratories to guide the young scientists. This warrants for developing sophisticated laboratories where  scientists can spend time for making breakthrough discoveries like the one by Dr. Mohammad Tofazzal Hossain. This is more important for a crucial agriculture sector because ours is still largely an agriculture-based country and as its population is increasing rapidly but agricultural lands are not, agricultural scientists need to do more agricultural research to get better yields in important crops.
Therefore, the government has to allocate more funds to make the existing labs richer and founding new others, not just in agriculture but in other fields also. Over the years, Bangladesh has become capable of feeding its ever increasing population simply because some important rice varieties have been discovered. But the country is yet to make a breakthrough in developing salinity tolerant rice but there has been remarkable development in the field. Up until now, it has been found that four transgenic rice varieties that have been so far developed are capable of production in high soil salinity far better than the ones now available in the market.
In lab and net house, the transgenic varieties had shown potential to yield up to 50 percent more than the available salt-tolerant HYVs in saline-stressed soil. It is necessary to advance this research rapidly because one million hectares of the total nine million hectares of cultivable land are salinity affected. The bottom line is: in Bangladesh agriculture scientists have to make constant research so that the country can reap the maximum in its minimum of resources. 

New breakthrough in agriculture research

Bangladesh needs to develop sophisticated laboratories where scientists can spend time for making important discoveries like the one by Dr. Mohammad Tofazzal Hossain

It is highly satisfying to know that Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) scientist, Dr Mohammad Tofajjal Hossain, has discovered a new species of novel endophytic bacteria called Bacillus oryzicola. According to a report published in this newspaper, out of 299 species of the Bacillus groups, only 30 species are novel and the newly discovered Bacillus oryzicola occupies the 31st position. Congratulations Dr. Hossain! This new species of bacteria helps in increasing rice yields by controlling major diseases and promoting the plant growth. It is now expected that Bangladesh would gain practically soon utilising the recent discovery. However, it would have been still more enjoyable for us to know had Dr Mohammad Tofajjal Hossain achieved this feat in a Bangladesh agricultural lab rather than the Gyeongsang National University in South Korea where he researched for the last five years to discover the bacteria. Our scientists often go to work in the laboratories of other countries because laboratories in Bangladesh are not rich with equipment. There is also a dearth of efficient scientists in the countrys existing laboratories to guide the young scientists. This warrants for developing sophisticated laboratories where scientists can spend time for making breakthrough discoveries like the one by Dr. Mohammad Tofazzal Hossain. This is more important for a crucial agriculture sector because ours is still largely an agriculture-based country and as its population is increasing rapidly but agricultural lands are not, agricultural scientists need to do more agricultural research to get better yields in important crops. Therefore, the government has to allocate more funds to make the existing labs richer and founding new others, not just in agriculture but in other fields also. Over the years, Bangladesh has become capable of feeding its ever increasing population simply because some important rice varieties have been discovered. But the country is yet to make a breakthrough in developing salinity tolerant rice but there has been remarkable development in the field. Up until now, it has been found that four transgenic rice varieties that have been so far developed are capable of production in high soil salinity far better than the ones now available in the market. In lab and net house, the transgenic varieties had shown potential to yield up to 50 percent more than the available salt-tolerant HYVs in saline-stressed soil. It is necessary to advance this research rapidly because one million hectares of the total nine million hectares of cultivable land are salinity affected. The bottom line is: in Bangladesh agriculture scientists have to make constant research so that the country can reap the maximum in its minimum of resources.