Conservation farming on 10pc land can save Tk 1,200cr a year

Bangladesh can get 737,000 tonnes of rice and other cereals and save over Tk 1,200 crore a year by adopting a farming system called Conservation Agriculture (CA) on 10 percent of its cultivable land, according to a recent study.

Adoption of CA, which calls for a permanent soil cover, minimum soil disturbance, crop residue retention and diversification of plant species, will also help improve the health of soil, which is deteriorating.

“We have found very convincing reasons in over 12 years of on-farm demonstrations and recently from surveys of farmer-reported benefits from CA,” said Richard W Bell, professor of land management at Murdoch University, Australia.

He was presenting a paper on conservation agriculture and farm mechanisation at an event held at the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC) in Dhaka.

Krishi Gobeshona Foundation (KGF), a government sponsored agricultural research entity, and the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), an independent statutory authority in Australia's Foreign Affairs, jointly organised the programme.

CA benefits farmers as it reduces the cost of production by saving labour and fuel costs as well as water for wheat. 

“Some of those benefits address the labour shortages and some involve cost savings and water savings. Generally, there was increased yield and almost always increased profits,” Bell said.

For soil health, CA has been a positive influence, according to the paper. Versatile Multi-crop Planter (VMP) has been developed here under the ACIAR project to promote CA in Bangladesh.

The VMP is being used with power tiller for planting of crops. A local firm, Hoque Corporation, manufactures the VMP, according to the paper.

In another paper on cropping system intensification in the salt-affected coastal zone of Bangladesh and India, Mohammed Mainuddin of the Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organisation Australia, said 65 percent of the area in the coastal zone is affected by various levels of salinity in the dry season.

Most of the land during dry season remains fallow for late rice harvest and prolonged water-logging, exposure of winter crops to high soil salinity and lack of quality water for irrigation during the season, he said.

Under the initiative, three areas -- Amtali of coastal district Barguna, Dacope of southwest district Khulna and Gosaba of South 24 Parganas, West Bengal -- were taken to test suitable cropping options, he added.

“We are experimenting with multiple crops to see which crop is more beneficial,” Mainuddin said citing the introduction of aus rice, cultivation of high-yielding and early-maturing new varieties of aman rice, and the growing of multiple crops on salinity affected land.

Due to climate change, the entire coastal region is affected with higher degree of floods, water-logging, tidal surges, droughts and salinity intrusion, said Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury.

“Productivity enhancement in agriculture is a prime concern to feed the growing population. We need to explore all possible scientific opportunities to increase the productivity of major crops.”

The government has formulated the National Agricultural Policy 2018 that pays greater focus on science-led development approach.

Issues like the use of modern technology such as nanotechnology, genetically modified organism, hybrid, growing more crops with less input, conservation, and precision agriculture conserving soil health and natural resources have been given adequate attention, she said.

She stressed on enhanced collaboration between Bangladesh and Australia to widen the scope of agricultural technology development in stress-prone zones. “I would also like to emphasise the exchange of germplasm of stress-tolerant variety of different crops,” Chowdhury added.

Senior Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture Mohammad Moinuddin Abdullah, Australian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Julia Niblett, former vice-chancellor of the Bangladesh Agricultural University Abdus Sattar Mandal, W Erskine of the Centre for Plant Genetics and Breeding at the University of Western Australia, BARC Executive Chairman Md Kabir Ikramul Haque and KGF Executive Director Wais Kabir also spoke.