Irrigation efficiency needed to reduce agri output cost

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BSS, Rajshahi :
More efficiency in irrigation has become a necessity for reducing the misuse of water alongside decreasing agriculture production cost, speakers at a meeting said.
They observed that the existing irrigation method has increased misuse of water adding pressure on both ground and surface water posing a serious threat to ecology.
So, some major parameters like water distribution system, irrigation scheme management system, water marketing system, sources of water, source of energy, Alternate Wetting Drying (AWD) and types of pumps should be brought under consideration.
The observations came at the 75th Board Meeting of Barind Multipurpose Development Authority (BMDA) held at its conference hall in Rajshahi city on Sunday.
The meeting reviewed all activities and progress of BMDA projects elaborately and took some important decisions in this regard, the meeting sources said.
BMDA, the pioneering state-owned irrigation providing organisation in the northwest of Bangladesh, has brought 752,000 hectares including 2.61 lakh hectares of irri-boro land under irrigation facilities through operating 14,090 power-driven deep tube wells (DTWs).
The irrigated lands have yielded around 618,000 tonnes of extra crops, especially food grain in the region especially in the vast Barind Tract per year.
With Dr Akram Hossain Chowdhury, Chairman of BMDA, in the chair, Advisers -State Minister for Information and Communication Technology Junaid Ahmed Polok, Israfil Alam, MP, Sadhan Majumder, MP, Akter Jahan, MP, and deputy commissioners of Rajshahi, Naogaon, Chapainawabgonj, Naogaon, Pabna and Bogra districts, among others, attended the meeting.
The meeting observed that the agriculture sector has already witnessed the scarcity of irrigated water, which may be harmful for crop production. Besides, the agriculture sector has faced huge production cost due to rising prices of different agri-inputs, which is pushing farmers of the region into a difficult situation.
In the meeting, Engineer Abdur Rashid, Executive Director-in-Charge of BMDA, painted an overview of its ongoing projects and progress of those. He said the region scored significant progress in the crop production sector following the expansion of irrigation facilities along with supplying water from the re-excavated canals and ponds.
Additional 7.40 lakh metric tonnes of food grain is expected to be produced through providing irrigation to additional 86,000 hectares of farming fields upon re-launching the DTWs.
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