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FSP may benefit Barind farmers a lot


Published : 20 Jan 2021 09:02 PM

Farmers of Barind region of Rajshahi are being benefitted by adopting Farming System Project adopted by Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute. The system is also working to preserve nature and the environment.

Years ago, BARI Field Research Section trained and assisted 24 farmers of Eidgahpara, Belpukur and Kadamsahar villages under Godagari upazila to cultivate various types of vegetables, fruit trees, rearing of ducks, poultry birds and pigeons and pisciculture under a package. They were trained to make compost by using litter of poultry and cow dung and use those at their fields to cultivate vegetables and plants.  

Officials of FSP also distributed improved seeds of paddy, vegetables and fruits among farmers and helped them through training to learn a new system of farming and of new technologies. 

The system has got wide popularity among farmers and they are now practising the system in various villages.

Afroza Begum and Rafia Khatun, farmers of Belpukur village under Godagari upazila informed, they were producing enough vegetables at their courtyards to feed their family members and were also selling some of those excess products. They further informed they used to earn extra money by selling poultry birds and eggs.

Rakib Hasan, Akkas Ali and Hafizur Rahman of the same village informed, they were being benefited by adopting the farming system. Especially the courtyard, derelict pond and fallow-land which remained unused for ages are being used as money earners. They were also being benefitted by cow fattening project and by making compost under the FSP.

BARI officials also informed the farming system has gained popularity among farmers of the Barind region. They opined, for several years, BARI officials and employees were distributing seeds and saplings of various plants and vegetables among farmers, assisting them through training and technology through FSP project so that not a single inch of land beside the houses remained fallow. The FSP was working well for the development of the financial condition of the farmers, diversifying pattern of farming and retaining ecological as well as environmental balance.

Professor Dr. Aminul Haque, Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture of Rajshahi University in this connection had once remarked, “FSP is a farmers' and agriculture-friendly project. It is possible to change the economic and environmental scenario of the Barind region by adopting the system by the farmers”.