Sustainable agri tech vital for food security: Experts

LALMONIRHAT, Apr 21 (BSS): Experts at a 'Research follow-up and progress sharing meeting' have said adoption of sustainable agricultural technologies at farmers' levels have become crucial for achieving food and nutrition security.
RDRS Bangladesh organised the meeting under the research-oriented 'Farmers Behaviors Insights Project (FBIP)' at the Upazila Agriculture Extension Office of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) in Hatibandha upazila on Wednesday.
The project is being implemented in six upazilas of Dinajpur, Nilphamari and Lalmonirhat since July 2018.
The University of Western Australia is extending financial support to RDRS Bangladesh for implementation of the project.
Hatibandha Upazila Agriculture Officer Agriculturist Md. Omar Farooque attended the meeting as the chief guest.
Research Associate of the FBIP project of RDRS Bangladesh Md. Mahafuz Alam presented details of the research findings.
Lalmonirhat District Agriculture Officer of RDRS Bangladesh Md. Firoz Bulbul, Field Facilitator Mofizul Islam, Machine Operators and representatives of different farmers' groups shared their experiences.
Mahafuz Alam said the project aims to improve productivity, income and food security of smallholder farming households through a better understanding of behavioural economics and its applications in farm management decision-making.
Adoption of sustainable agricultural technologies has become a need of the time for development of the agricultural sector to ensure food and nutrition security of small and marginal farmers who are playing a key role towards the direction.
"We conducted the research to find out the social, cultural and psychological implications of farmers' decision-making process in adopting new technologies and practices under the FBIP project," he said.
Some 780 farmers were surveyed this year under the research programme to find out how their behavior influences the decision-making process in adopting new technologies including conservation-based agricultural technologies using their behavioral insights.
The chief guest gave suggestions on the progress of research and special instructions to the participating field-level Sub-assistant Agriculture Officers (SAAOs) of the DAE on the extension and popularisation of new agricultural technologies at the field levels.
"Popularisation of new agricultural technologies and practices among farmers have become crucial for facing new challenges of climate change to improve productivity, profitability and farm-household incomes," he said.