Producing more crop with less input

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According to a recent report in this paper, a revolution in food grain production can occur in Bangladesh, if only the areas under higher yielding seeds are expanded to cover some 60 per cent of the farmlands instead of the present 20 per cent or so now covered by the application of such seeds. In that case, it should be possible to produce an additional 30 million tons of rice.
The Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation (BADC) is presently the biggest supplier of the high yielding seeds followed by organizations in the private sector. Capacities of both the BADC and the private sector should now be bolstered to produce the high yielding seeds in far greater quantities and to distribute the same efficiently. The governmental agencies dealing with agriculture should carry out programmes to encourage the farmers to opt for the higher yielding seeds.
Apart from the application of higher yielding seeds, changes must be brought about in the management of irrigation water. Recently, it was found out that excess water is now wasted on irrigation when better results in terms of productivity can be achieved by using less water. Research to develop seeds to withstand drought, floods and salinity are now going on. Seeds developed to meet such physical situations will have to be popularized and extensively used in areas prone to these conditions.
Farmers are found using excessive amount of urea, whereas they can apply far less amount of fertilizer to get the same or better results. Thus, they need to be trained on using the inputs correctly.
In all sectors of agricultural production, new and innovative techniques will have to be encouraged to promote higher productivity from the limited lands.
Abdur Rashid
DOHS, Dhaka.