Dutch help sought in cutting crop varieties innovation timeframe

As climate tolerant crop varieties help improve food security, Agriculture Minister Dr Abdur Razzaque has sought cooperation of the Netherlands in minimising the time period required for innovation of climate tolerant crop varieties, reports BSS.

"We've been working on the development of climate tolerant crop varieties on a priority basis aiming to cope with the adverse impacts of climate change in the country's agriculture sector," he told a meeting in the Netherlands.

The meeting was held between the Bangladesh agriculture minister and executive board president of the Wageningen University and Research Louise O Fresco on Thursday evening, according to a message received in Dhaka on Friday.

Dr Razzaque said scientists and researchers in Bangladesh are working to develop crop varieties tolerant to salinity, drought, flood and high temperature.

"We've already achieved success to this end. But it takes a long time to innovate these varieties. We want to reduce its time period. To this end, we need the cooperation of the Netherlands," he said.

Presenting the Letter of Intent (LOI) to president of the Executive Board of Vakheningen University and Research, the agriculture minister also sought the cooperation of the university in Bangladesh's agricultural research, particularly in innovating rapidly growing climate-tolerant crop varieties, storing perishable agricultural products and training scientists and researchers.

O Fresco showed interest in cooperating with Bangladesh on these issues, assuring that a delegation of the university would visit Bangladesh soon, and stressed indentifying the areas of cooperation.

Earlier in the day, Dr Razzaque visited Vakheningen University and Netherlands Plant Eco-phenotyping Centre (NPEC).