Bangladesh scientists work at producing drought tolerant grains

Bangladeshi scientists are working hard to develop climate-resilient varieties of different crops amid the problem of water shortage, Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury said Wednesday (May 5).

 

Matia Chowdhury said this when addressing an international workshop on Building Climate Resilient Agriculture in Asia at the Brac Inn in Mohakhali, Dhaka.

 

She said the government had already started dredging the Gorai River with local dredging equipment. The private sector's eagerness in the process was noted by the minister.

 

On climate change, Matia said climate change would exacerbate many problems and natural hazards currently faced by Bangladesh. She stressed the need for developing short duration varieties and drought tolerant varieties of crops to tackle the scarcity of water.

 

"The issue of rainwater conservation was neglected and over mining of underground water caused arsenic problem and desertification in the northern region," she said.

 

Renowned economist and Chairman of leading think-tank Centre for Policy Dialogue, Prof Rehman Sobhan, in his remarks brought attention to the fact that small farmers are neglected from different government facilities including credit. He suggested ensuring fair price for the farmers and drawing greater attention to their needs.

 

"The farmers have already demonstrated their climate resilience by achieving bumper production, now the government should demonstrate its resilience," he said.

 

Former advisor to the caretaker government AMM Shawkat Ali while addressing the workshop said coordination among the government ministries and private organisations is needed in order to develop the agriculture sector.

 

He emphasised development of resilient varieties for the coastal belt districts, saying that increasing salinity in the water has emerged as a big problem in these districts.

 

Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) and International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in collaboration with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) are organising the two-day workshop.

 

Some 45 representatives from six Asian countries - Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, China, Thailand and Vietnam - are taking part in the workshop.