Develop hybrids for agri sustenance

Speakers at a conference yesterday urged agronomists in the country to give more emphasis on inventing different types of hybrid and climate adaptive crop varieties to ensure sustainability in agricultural systems.

The varieties can give farmers the option to choose a crop suitable for their lands which will help use agricultural lands more effectively to increase overall production, they said.

The remarks came at the 10th biennial conference of the Plant Breeding & Genetics Society of Bangladesh in the capital's Krishibid Institution Bangladesh.

Every year the government has to spend a large amount of money for importing edible oil but the expenses can be reduced by bringing farmers into cultivating crops from which oil is extracted, like soybean, said Dr Abdur Razzaque, chairman of the parliamentary standing committee of the agriculture ministry.

The breeding specialists in the country have to help farmers by providing them varieties suited to different areas and environments, he said.

The society President Prof Shahidur Rashid Bhuiyan said the government needs to establish a separate genetic resource institute to facilitate breeding and genetic engineering.

“Besides, the breeding specialists need to be smarter while inventing a new variety,” he said, adding that all agronomists, including genetic engineers, breeding specialists and horticulturists, in the country have to work together for agricultural advancement.

Agricultural scientist Dr Kazi M Badruddoza, the society Senior Vice President Dr Khairul Bashar and Prof Lutfur Rahman, a former teacher of Bangladesh Agricultural University, also spoke.