Popularizing stress tolerant seed verities among the farmers was crucial to make the national agricultural growth sustainable, observed policymakers and researchers on Wednesday.
They highlighted the need for adopting new technologies of seed development in accordance with the constraints and requirements of farmers. Addressing a workshop on formulating policy for developing seed sector in Bangladesh, the speakers said high quality seeds and a streamlined seed distribution system were necessary for the development of the country’s agriculture sector.
Agriculture ministry, International Food Policy Research Institute and USAID jointly organized the programme. Agriculture minister Matia Chowdhury, as the chief guest, said country’s ‘liberal seed policy’ facilitated the introduction of modern seed varieties.
‘Small-scale and resource-poor farmers must have the access to and be benefited from the new technologies,’ she contended.
Chair of the opening session and senior secretary to agriculture ministry Mohammad Moinuddin Abdullah emphasized accelerated rice production to feed the ever increasing national population as it was projected to be reached at 195 million by 2030.
Additional secretary to agriculture ministry Mohammad Nazmul Islam, USAID Bangladesh’s deputy mission director Zeinah Salahi also addressed the session.
In a technical session, chaired by BADC chairman Nasirzzaman, IFPRI Bangladesh representative Akhter Ahmed referred to Bureau of Statistic’s data which said average rice production was decreased over the last 10 years despite farmland coverage increase.
He said farmers were still depended on seeds what they stored and their tenancy on farmland was a deterrent to adopting new technology. Dhaka University economics professor Firdousi Naher recommended for enhancing breeder seed production capacity. She said assessing the quantity of demand and supply of non-notified seeds like lentils, oilseed and vegetable was quite difficult due to fragmented and confusing data available in the farming sector.
Two other sessions on seed certification, challenges and prospects of private seed sector and regional seed harmonization were held moderated by agricultural policy advisor Shahidur Rahman Bhuiyan, ACI Agri-Business director FH Ansarey, SAARC Agriculture Centre director Shaikh Mohammad Bokhtiar, private sector specialist Hosna Ferdous Sumi and USAID Bangladesh’s deputy director David Westerling.
This article was originally published in The daily Newage on 24 August 2017.