The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

Agriculture Secretary Md Abdul Aziz said yesterday that about 40 lakh tonnes of the foodgrain are damaged every year due to lack of proper care during the post harvesting period.

"We can save huge quantity of foodgrain if we can apply new technologies and modern method during the post harvesting period," he said while addressing as a chief guest at a seminar styled "Irrigation and Water Management, Agriculture Mechanisation and Post harvest process engineering for sustainable agricultural development of Bangladesh" at the Institution of Engineers in the capital.

The Agricultural Engineering Division (AED) of IEB organised the daylong seminar. Dr MA Satter, Head of Irrigation and Water Management Division of BRRI presented the keynote paper while Prof Dr Eng Shahid Ullah Talukder, Chairman of AED presided over the seminar.

The agriculture secretary said that dependence on imported foodgrain could be reduced by adopting modern technology in the agricultural sector. The agro-technologists should come forward to build Bangladesh as a self reliant country, he said adding "We have no other alternative but to augment production of foodgrain in the country as its prices have been soaring day by day in the international market."

He also called upon landowners not to use cultivable lands for non-agricultural purposes as over one per cent of the agricultural land is declining per year.

Dr MA Satter in his keynote paper said that about 56 per cent of agriculture land is brought under irrigation every year and paddy is produced on bulk of the irrigated land.

He pointed out that about 30 to 50 per cent of irrigation water is misused in both major and minor irrigation systems.

A lot of appropriate water saving technology for rice and non-rice crop cultivation has been developed by the research institutions. But few of them are practiced by farming community due to lack of appropriate extension services, he noted.

He laid emphasis on the development of surface water management technology for sustainable development of agriculture in the backdrop of scarcity of groundwater.

Prof RI Sarker, Vice Chancellor of Jessore Science and Technology University and Eng Muhammad Mohsin Ali, President-in charge of IEB, Eng Khan Manjur Morshed, General Secretary of IEB, Prof Md Monjurul Alam of Bangladesh Agriculture University Mymensingh, Dr Shirajul Islam, Chief Scientist Officer of BARI, Eng Md Masuduzzaman, Vice Chairman of AED of IEB and Eng Mohammed Ayubur Rahman, secretary of AED of IEB addressed the seminar.