BMDA to hold conference on fighting droughts

Barind Multipurpose Development Authority (BMDA) will host a two-day conference in Rajshahi starting July 6, to find strategies to  fight droughts, which has put the region’s food and water security in question.

Agriculture Minister Dr Mohammad Abdur Razzaque is scheduled to attend the conference, which is divided into two parts – a seminar with all stakeholders on the first day and a scientific discussion among experts the following day, said Dr Akram Hossain Chowdhury, chairman of the authority, at a press conference held at its conference room yesterday.

Other than local experts from across the country, experts from Asian Development Bank and World Bank will also join the conference, which is titled “Agro Eco Innovation Research Platform Conference”, he added.

Contacted, eminent hydrologist Prof Chowdhury Sarwar Jahan -- who is going to present the keynote paper at the conference -- said continued depletion of groundwater and decreasing rainfall has impacted irrigation-dependant agriculture and ecology of the hard Barind region covering Rajshahi, Naogaon and Chapainawabganj districts.

If the agriculture reliant people of the region are not given proper strategies to fight back the water crisis, it would impact food security, he said, adding that some 45 percent of these people play a role in 15 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP).

He said the conference would derive projects such as cultivating low water-consuming and drought-tolerant crops, increasing crop diversity and density using technology, and finding ways to increase groundwater by using surface water and preserving rainwater.

The BMDA chairman said the conference would be second of its kind; the first one held in January 2017 brought out some 32 research papers helping them open a research wing and taking up some ongoing projects for using river water for irrigation.