'Sustainable land management a must for agri development'

Sustainable land management has become indispensable for sustainable agricultural development to maintain food security of the nation, said the speakers at a regional workshop in Rajshahi yesterday.
They also called for ensuring the sustainable land management for keeping the environment friendly and natural along with proper use and management of land property and integration with all entities of the nature.
The workshop titled “Sustainable Land Management (SLM) for Agricultural Development” was organized by Agriculture Information Service (AIS) at the conference hall of Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE).
AIS Director Nazrul Islam addressed the session as chief guest while Deputy Director of DAE Anwarul Azim as special guest with Deputy Director Mass Communication of AIS Khorshed Zafri in the chair.
The speakers said that SLM should be maintained for less investment ,maximum benefit for livelihood development, maximum production ,better protection from natural hazards and calamity and risk minimization.
They recommended adopting integrated participatory watershed management approach for holistic development of rain fed and wetland areas for sustainable productivity.
Besides, they underscored the need for alternate land use or agro- forestry systems for productive utilization of degraded wetlands side by side with integrated and balanced nutrient use management to achieve higher partial and total factor productivity.
In his keynote speech, AIS Farm Broadcasting Officer Dr Zahangir Alam said various degradations like soil and water resources, vegetation, abnormal decline of surface and groundwater resources and climatic deterioration have been detected as the major components of land degradation.
To handle the degradable factors, emphasis should be given wide-ranging growing of leguminous cover crops and their incorporation in the soil along with adoption of soil conservation measures, he added.
He said promotion of biodiversity and checking soil and water pollution by heavy metal or toxic substances along with conservation tillage utilizing crop residues could be effective means of sustainable land management.
Moreover, he noted that fertile and cultivable lands must be protected from industrialization and urbanization for future food security.
He recommended steps including proper and immediate land policy with timely land reformation, soil and land preservation and improvement, economic crop zoning, proper guideline for judicious chemical use and land use registration legislation.
District Livestock Officers Khairul Alam and Azizul Islam, Principal Scientific Officer of Wheat Research Station Dr Israil Hossain, Deputy Director of Ansar-VDP Shah Alam, Scientific Officer of Soil Resource Development Institution Nurul Islam and Horticulturist Monzurul Huda participated in the open discussion.