15pc addl rice may be produced thru new tech

block
Staff Reporter :
The country can produce 15 percent additional rice by applying new technology of agriculture, sources said. The new technology i.e. deep placement of urea fertilizer will save cost as lesser quantity of fertilizer, about one-third of the volume presently used, will be needed to reach the target.
One percent agriculture land decreases every year due to several reasons, including climate change and use of farm land for setting up of industries, kilns and residential houses while population continues to boom. The Deep placement technology of urea will therefore be appropriate for producing additional rice, the research said.
The research papers was presented in the workshop on “Mitigation of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions through Urea Deep Placement(UDP) Technology from Rice Field” at Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC) on Tuesday. The programme was the part of the International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC) under the Accelerating Agriculture Productivity Improvement (AAPI) project funded by United States Agency for International Development (USAID),
The Minister of Agriculture Matia Choudhury attended the inaugural session of the workshop as the chief guest and formally inaugurated the
workshop. Dr. S. M. Njamul Islam, Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture, and Ms. Janina Jaruzelski, USAID Mission Director, were the special guests. Dr. Md. Kamal Uddin, Executive Chairman, of BARC, chaired the session. About 300 participants from home and abroad attended.
Dr. Reiner Wassmann,Senior Scientist and Coordinator of Rice and Climate Change Consortium, International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Philippines, presented the keynote paper entitled, “Assessing the Suitability of Mitigation Options in Rice Production Derived from Bio-physical Considerations and Stakeholders’ Perceptions.” In the workshop, the AAPI Deputy Chief of Party Dr. Yam Kanta Gaihre presented the workshop paper entitled, “Assessing the Impacts of Urea Deep Placement on Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Mitigation Potential under Continuous Rice Cropping Systems.”
The local scientists presented seven posters from the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) and Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU). Dr. Upendra Singh, IFDC Principal Scientist, who led the AAPI team from IFDC headquarters, presented the recommendations of the working group. Many reputed local and international scientists attended this workshop, which was followed by technical sessions. Scientists and media personnel visited the BRRI lab at Gazipur on the next day of the workshop.
Dr. Yam Kanta Gaihre, presented the research results of AAPI-GHG pilot project. He highlighted the mitigation options of GHG emissions from rice field using UDP technology. Use of UDP drastically reduced nitrous oxide emissions in both locations of the project, BRRI, Gazipur and BAU, Mymensingh.
 He mentioned that nitrous oxide has 298 times higher potential for global warming than carbon dioxide. Therefore, reduction of N losses as nitrous oxide could minimize the effect of climate change. This research was conducted jointly by IFDC, BRRI and BAU. This research also focused on water saving irrigation technology-AWD. Since groundwater level of Bangladesh was depleting, the adoption of AWD irrigation technology could maximize water use so that more rice area can come under rice cultivation during Boro season. He claimed that UDP and AWD were climate smart technologies and adoption of those technologies could significantly mitigate greenhouse gas emissions from rice agriculture.
block