Farmers need to utilise fertilizer and water more effectively in order to increase agricultural production, experts said on Thursday.
Henk van Duijn, president and CEO of US-based International Fertilizer Development Centre (IFDC), made the suggestion at the launch of Feed the Future Bangladesh Climate Smart Agriculture Activity (CSA) at the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC) in the city on Thursday.
Read: US invests $35 million for new climate-smart agriculture project in Bangladesh
A fund of $35 million is being provided by USAID for the five-year CSA project starting this year to be implemented in 21 districts of the country’s south and southwestern region.
“Soil nutrient degradation and salinity in the coastal areas are major problems. As fertilizer prices are high in the international market, farmers struggle to avail it despite government subsidy,” said Duijn.
“So, we are looking into more technologies whereby fertilizer briquettes are applied deep in the soil, which is close to the plant roots. This can significantly increase fertilizer efficiency and productivity,” the farming expert said.
The project, which will use climate smart technologies, including digital applications and better seed varieties, would assist an estimated 900,000 smallholder farmers.
Duijn said there are already innovations including saline tolerant vegetables, which can absorb salinity out of soil and help grow other crops. Introducing such vegetables can be very helpful.
Agriculture Ministry Secretary Wahida Akter said often high labour cost becomes an issue, especially during the peak harvesting and planting seasons. So, promoting farm machinery can be very useful.
Dr Muhammad Khan, director of Economic Growth Programmes of USAID Bangladesh, and Dr Shaikh Mohammad Bokhtiar, executive chairman of BARC, also spoke at the programme.