Climate-resilient jute variety to revive industry, hopes PM

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FE Report
The country's efforts to turn around the ailing the jute industry got a boost after researchers developed a climate-tolerant jute variety by doing "genome sequencing," Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said Wednesday.
The genome sequencing allows jute saplings to grow, defying even hostile weather and the menace of climate change and it is expected to significantly improve the quality of its fibre.
"Many may ask the question about the application of the genome sequencing. It will improve the quality of jute fibre and help saplings survive in adverse weather caused by climate change," the Prime Minister told the parliament.
"This will help farmers increase yield, meaning a better future awaits for them," she said, adding it would also help the farming community to better manage pest.
Jute was once the country's top foreign currency earner, but the fall in demand in the world market forced Bangladesh to scale back cultivation and close down loss-incurring jute mills including the storied Adamjee Jute Mill, Asia's largest.
Farmers increasingly switched over to rice production as it promised better output and prices, leaving the jute sector to bear the brunt of the economic transformation. Today, apparel industry is the biggest foreign exchange earner, employing 3.0 million workers, mostly female.
But Sheikh Hasina pledged to recover the lost glory of the jute sector, saying Bangladesh is now the second developing nation in Asia to dig out the history of jute's evolution.
She cancelled the scheduled the question-answer hour to make the announcement.
Hasina said a group of Bangladeshi researchers of Dhaka University's Biochemistry and Biotechnology departments, led by an expatriate scientist, Dr Maqsudul Alam, made the accomplishment.
"We kept it secret to make the announcement in parliament," she said. "We must get the intellectual property rights of this crucial discovery," she added.
The achievement would brighten the country's external image in the field of research as only a handful of countries were able to notch this kind of accomplishment, Hasina said.
The Prime Minister, while speaking in parliament, also said her government has been making all-out efforts to connect Bangladesh with other Asian countries including China through establishing direct road and rail links.
"We've undertaken necessary steps to establish road and rail links between Chittagong in Bangladesh and Kunming in China through Myanmar," Hasina said as she responded to a question raised by BNP lawmaker Lutfar Rahman.
Referring to her March visit to China, Sheikh Hasina said that the Chinese government has assured her of taking positive step towards establishing direct road and rail links between the two countries.
The Prime Minister noted that she had received "encouraging response" from the provincial leaders of Yunan province of China for the initiative.
However, she informed the House that the government had already put forward a recommendation to the Chinese authority for implementing the project in establishing Bangladesh-China road and rail links so that authorities of Myanmar and China could make a coordinated effort.