The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) will further assist Bangladesh in developing and researching various varieties of stress tolerant rice, including salt. In addition, Bangladeshi scientists will be able to take training in various disciplines, including rapid rice variety innovation, at the world-class laboratory at the Erie South Asia Regional Office in Varanasi, India.
IRRI Asia Representative Nafees Meah said this during a meeting with Agriculture Minister Dr Md Abdur Razzak at the Secretariat on Tuesday afternoon. Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture Md Sayedul Islam, Additional Secretary Kamala Ranjan Das, Director General of Bangladesh Rice Research Institute Shahjahan Kabir, Bangladesh Representative of Eri Homnath Bhandari and others were present at the meeting.
At the same time, the Agriculture Minister said “In order to make food security sustainable, we are giving importance to the development of various varieties of rice tolerant with salt. Scientists in the country have already developed many varieties of high quality. Even then more varieties are needed. We want IRRI's cooperation in this matter.”
The IRRI delegation at this time wanted to know about the release of Golden Rice in Bangladesh and requested for its release. The issue of release of Golden Rice in the country is currently under consideration in the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, the minister said. He said that environmentalists and civil society have objections to the release of Golden Rice in the country.
The Prime Minister of Bangladesh will be invited as the chief guest at the International Paddy Conference to be held in 2023, said Nafees Mia, Asia Representative of Erie.
Later, while exchanging views with journalists, the Agriculture Minister said that if there is no major natural calamity, there is no chance of food crisis in the country. The condition of paddy in the field is good at the moment. Boro has been planted on 90,000 hectares of land more than the target this year. Out of 4 lakh 52 thousand hectares of land in Haor, about 7 thousand hectares of paddy land has been damaged due to early floods. However, due to timely protection of the dam, favorable weather and rapid harvesting of paddy through machinery, the paddy of the haor has already been taken home.
The minister said work was underway to reduce the import dependence of edible oil by increasing the cultivation of mustard. He said it would be possible to produce 40 per cent of the edible oil demand locally in the next 3-4 years.
