Stress on less-water consuming crops in Barind region

RAJSHAHI: Instead of depending on only Irri-Boro farming, emphasis should be given to the promotion of less-irrigation consuming cereal crops in Barind area to lessen the gradually mounting pressure on underground water, said Dr Akram Hossain Chowdhury, reports BSS.
He viewed that large-scale promotion of less-water consuming crops could be the effective means of mitigating water-stress condition in the drought-prone Barind area.
Dr Chowdhury, chairman of Barind Multipurpose Development Authority (BMDA), referred to various research findings and mentioned that there are enormous scopes of increasing the acreage of various low-water consuming crops like wheat, black gram, sesame, lentil, maize and mugdal in the high Barind tract.
He was addressing a daylong training styled “Wheat and Paddy Seed Production, Processing and Cultivation of Less Water Consuming Crops” held at BMDA conference hall in Rajshahi city on Saturday as chief guest.
BMDA’s project titled ‘Quality Seed Production, Distribution and Farmers Training for Crops Production’ organised the training where 30 executive engineers and assistant engineers from Rajshahi, Naogaon and Chapainawabganj districts attended.
With Project Director ATM Rafiqul Islam in the chair, BMDA Executive Director Abdur Rashid, Regional Seed Certification Officer Sirajul Islam, Assistant Seed Certification Officer Ahmmed Shafi, Principal Scientific Officer of Regional Wheat Research Station Dr Ilias Hossain and Senior Scientific Officer of On-farm Research Division Dr Shakhawat Hossain also spoke.
The meeting was told that wheat could be cultivated on seven to eight bighas of land with same amount of irrigation-water needed to irrigate one bigha of Boro rice through soil moisture utilisation and the best uses of the modern technologies.
Wheat plays an important role in ensuring food security as its consumption is increasing day by day. But, Bangladesh produces hardly 1 million (10 lakh) tonnes of wheat against the demand of around 4 million tonnes annually.

Stress on less-water consuming crops in Barind region

RAJSHAHI: Instead of depending on only Irri-Boro farming, emphasis should be given to the promotion of less-irrigation consuming cereal crops in Barind area to lessen the gradually mounting pressure on underground water, said Dr Akram Hossain Chowdhury, reports BSS. He viewed that large-scale promotion of less-water consuming crops could be the effective means of mitigating water-stress condition in the drought-prone Barind area. Dr Chowdhury, chairman of Barind Multipurpose Development Authority (BMDA), referred to various research findings and mentioned that there are enormous scopes of increasing the acreage of various low-water consuming crops like wheat, black gram, sesame, lentil, maize and mugdal in the high Barind tract. He was addressing a daylong training styled Wheat and Paddy Seed Production, Processing and Cultivation of Less Water Consuming Crops held at BMDA conference hall in Rajshahi city on Saturday as chief guest. BMDAs project titled Quality Seed Production, Distribution and Farmers Training for Crops Production organised the training where 30 executive engineers and assistant engineers from Rajshahi, Naogaon and Chapainawabganj districts attended. With Project Director ATM Rafiqul Islam in the chair, BMDA Executive Director Abdur Rashid, Regional Seed Certification Officer Sirajul Islam, Assistant Seed Certification Officer Ahmmed Shafi, Principal Scientific Officer of Regional Wheat Research Station Dr Ilias Hossain and Senior Scientific Officer of On-farm Research Division Dr Shakhawat Hossain also spoke. The meeting was told that wheat could be cultivated on seven to eight bighas of land with same amount of irrigation-water needed to irrigate one bigha of Boro rice through soil moisture utilisation and the best uses of the modern technologies. Wheat plays an important role in ensuring food security as its consumption is increasing day by day. But, Bangladesh produces hardly 1 million (10 lakh) tonnes of wheat against the demand of around 4 million tonnes annually.