The New Nation - Internet Edition

Professor M Zahidul Haque

Urea is an organic compound that is used as nitrogen-release fertilizer. Urea provides one of the three essential elements, that is, Nitrogen to the plants. Urea is also known as 'Carbamide'. Urea fertilizer is applied to various crop fields at different rates. Urea is a volatile substance; therefore, it should be stored properly to protect it against volatilization because urea absorbs moisture from the atmosphere.

Guti(pellet) urea is the super granular form of urea fertilizer which when applied requires 30% less than the normal urea, increases 20-25% yield of rice and brings more profit to the farmers.

Recently the Ministry of Agriculture, Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), USAID, IFDC jointly organized an award giving ceremony for partners involved in promoting the use of guti urea under the Urea Deep Placement(UDP) Technology Project during the Boro season 2008 which led about 4 lakh farmers to use guti urea on more than 1.5 lakh hectares of land. As a result, this year, the country had a bumper production of Boro rice.

In achieving this success, the extension officials of DAE and IFDC together with the farmers did a hard work. The Guti Urea Award Ceremony was presided over by the Director General of DAE Md. Shamsul Alam and attended by Agriculture Advisor Dr.C S Karim as the chief guest. The function was attended by among others, Agriculture Secretary M Abdul Aziz, ndc, IFDC Scientist Dr. Thomas P Thompson, USAID Director Anne Williams, IFDC Resident Representative Ishrat Jahan.

Dr. Shahidul Islam, Director, Field Services, DAE in his welcome address narrated the role of DAE Extension Workers

in promoting the use of guti urea fertilizer among the farmers. A number of farmers spoke on the occasion. Farmer Rekha Rani Saha from Mymensingh while stating her experience in using guti urea stressed on the need for strengthening the local IPM Clubs through providing registration to these clubs for organizing and motivating more farmers use guti urea. Agriculture Secretary M Abdul Aziz,ndc who was present as the guest of honor in his speech informed that he has already taken initiatives to expedite registration process of IPM Clubs. It may be indicated here that the IPM Clubs are not getting registration as they are lacking one criteria for registration, that is, ownership of a piece of land. In reality, the IPM clubs and their workers have been contributing tremendously in the extension of guti urea and other agricultural innovations. Hence, the government should register these clubs on special consideration.

Agriculture Advisor Dr. C S Karim heartily appreciated the sincere efforts of the farmers and extension workers in accomplishing a bumper rice crop production through the efficient use of guti urea. More than 350 farmers and DAE field officials were awarded in recognition of their achievements and performances under the UDP Technology Project.

In her address as the special guest USAID EGFE Director Anne Williams said that the use of UDP technology reduces waste of fertilizers and erosion of soil fertility while the use of this technology leads to saving foreign exchange and subsidies.

As informed by the Agriculture Secretary, the duration of the UDP Technology Project has been extended up to June 2008.

So far so good. But there are some points which needs due attention. There are certain costs involved in the application of guti urea which should be brought under consideration to

calculate the actual cost and benefit. These include: (i) extra

labor cost for deep placement of guti urea (ii) cost for

preparing guti urea plus the cost of the loss of urea during the preparation and (iii) extra irrigational costs for keeping the soil moistened including the fuel cost to run irrigation pumps.

Meanwhile Agriculture Advisor Dr. C S Karim in his speech made a valuable suggestion. He stressed on the need for increasing the use of bio-fertilizer as costs of fertilizer import would increase in future. Not only cost but chemical fertilizer also causes damage to environment. Hence extension efforts have to be intensified to encourage farmers use bio-fertilizer. At the same time the agricultural research organizations need to undertake special projects to innovate effective bio-fertilizers.

[The author is the Chairman, Department of Agricultural Extension & Information System, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University (SAU), Dhaka who represented SAU at the Award Ceremony]