A five-day capacity-buildingtraining course on
the theme of "conservation agriculture-based crop management" was
conducted in Rajshahi recently, avowedly to increase food production in the
face of multiple adversities, both natural and man-made. It was organised
jointly by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) and
Bangladesh International Research Institute (BARI) under the Cereal Systems
Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) project, with support from the US Agency for
International Development (USAID) and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Its main focus, as was reported in the media, was on improved food security,
livelihoods and the best and judicious use of natural resources. Agricultural
experts and researchers were thus reported to have discussed there in Rajshahi
a wide array of issues such as the benefits of reduced tillage, leaving some
post-harvest crop residues on the field to increase soil fertility, crop
rotation and diversification and other 'new and updated technology', all having
relevance to the principles of conservation agriculture.
Many critics point out that for Bangladesh's farming folk, prior to the green revolution of the 1960s, crop rotation and use of crop residues and other organic matter to enhance soil fertility, used to be a standard practice. They had been forced to unlearn much traditional wisdom due to the top-down intervention of educated outsiders. Granting that there can be many benefits as well as setbacks from such encounters, the target group would do well to keep their wits around them and make the best of the capacity-building exercise. There is plenty of scope for enhancing knowledge and collaborating in agriculture. A recent joint venture between Bangladesh and Japanese investors to produce high quality 'mung' bean sprouts, entirely for theJapanese market, may be a case in point. This project was expected to get off the ground within 2012 and if all goes well, could contribute a substantial additional amount of foreign exchange to Bangladesh's export earnings. This kind of a joint venture which has the potential of providing jobs remunerative for farmers, bringing fallow land under non-cereal crop cultivation and enhancing the availability of the legume for domestic consumption as well, is more than welcome.
Sustained agricultural growth, coupled with efforts to enhance productivity and to promote diversification while keeping the resource endowment factors from dynamic context into consideration, is critically important for Bangladesh. Despite the gradual decline of the share of agriculture in the country's gross domestic product (GDP) with economic progress over the past few decades, the sector still contributes about a fifth to the national incomes and employs nearly half of its labour force. There is no denying that the natural resources -- land, water and soil fertility -- that are available for agricultural production have been under some adverse pressures in Bangladesh. But there are also many opportunities that yet remain unexploited. Here the diffusion of appropriate technologies and improved farm practices, can make the difference, in terms of increased productivity and higher levels of production. A synergy of actions -- supportive policy measures, incentives, marketing and related infrastructural facilities, better conservation methods, improved management practices etc., -- will be needed to tap the potential for diversification of agricultural activities on a sustained basis.
Many critics point out that for Bangladesh's farming folk, prior to the green revolution of the 1960s, crop rotation and use of crop residues and other organic matter to enhance soil fertility, used to be a standard practice. They had been forced to unlearn much traditional wisdom due to the top-down intervention of educated outsiders. Granting that there can be many benefits as well as setbacks from such encounters, the target group would do well to keep their wits around them and make the best of the capacity-building exercise. There is plenty of scope for enhancing knowledge and collaborating in agriculture. A recent joint venture between Bangladesh and Japanese investors to produce high quality 'mung' bean sprouts, entirely for theJapanese market, may be a case in point. This project was expected to get off the ground within 2012 and if all goes well, could contribute a substantial additional amount of foreign exchange to Bangladesh's export earnings. This kind of a joint venture which has the potential of providing jobs remunerative for farmers, bringing fallow land under non-cereal crop cultivation and enhancing the availability of the legume for domestic consumption as well, is more than welcome.
Sustained agricultural growth, coupled with efforts to enhance productivity and to promote diversification while keeping the resource endowment factors from dynamic context into consideration, is critically important for Bangladesh. Despite the gradual decline of the share of agriculture in the country's gross domestic product (GDP) with economic progress over the past few decades, the sector still contributes about a fifth to the national incomes and employs nearly half of its labour force. There is no denying that the natural resources -- land, water and soil fertility -- that are available for agricultural production have been under some adverse pressures in Bangladesh. But there are also many opportunities that yet remain unexploited. Here the diffusion of appropriate technologies and improved farm practices, can make the difference, in terms of increased productivity and higher levels of production. A synergy of actions -- supportive policy measures, incentives, marketing and related infrastructural facilities, better conservation methods, improved management practices etc., -- will be needed to tap the potential for diversification of agricultural activities on a sustained basis.
Original Article Here
No comments:
Post a Comment