It is encouraging to know that Barind Multipurpose Development Authority’s phase-3 project “Barind Integrated Area Development Project (phase-3)” is helping to increase food production in the relevant areas. Besides, it is also creating self employment opportunities and accelerating economic growth in the area. According to a report of this newspaper yesterday, all the 25 upazilas under Rajshahi, Naogaon and Chapainawabganj districts are having positive impact on the region’s overall agriculture and economy as the barind development project is being implemented.

Through this project an additional 45,000 hectares of land are brought under controlled and appropriate irrigation management system by installing fresh deep tube wells. Electricity is essential is running the tube wells and electrical networks of the area for the new deep tube wells have also been enhanced through the project and another supplementary 60,000 hectares of land could be brought under the project’s successful implementation.

All lands of the country are not fit for cultivation of the same agricultural crop. This is because the nature of the soil everywhere is not the same. The land in the Barind region is especially different from lands of the other part of the region. That is why to make the maximum use of land it is vitally important to know what kind of crops is best suited for a region.

And it is precisely the responsibility of the government to make the farmers of the region aware of the nature of the soil and the products that can be best produced in it. But a project like Barind Integrated Area Development is not only important from the agricultural point of view, since this creates employment, for the unemployed people, especially the youth, implementing such a project like the BMDA has immense economic significance.

Agriculture is still the mainstay of Bangladesh economy, though industrial development has taken place considerably over the last few decades. Yet Bangladesh must become a nation of self sufficiency in food production through utilization of its limited land resources. From that angle Barind Integrated Area Development Project bears great value for Bangladesh’s agricultural economy.

For the benefits of the country’s small and marginal farmers, day labourers and women, the government can take up more such projects, not just in the Barind region, but for the other regions of the country as well.