The New Nation - Internet Edition

BSS, Dhaka

Bangladesh Academy of Rural Development (BARD) has undertaken a plan for human resources development through imparting training on rural development to 5,110 people in 131 courses.

As part of the plan for 2008-09 fiscal year, the academy has also initiated a good number of researches on important issues like climate change, disaster management, communication pattern, food security and remittance flow.

BARD officials revealed this at the concluding session of its 42nd annual planning conference for 2008-09 at its auditorium here. Director General of the academy M Khairul Kabir chaired the session.

Some 125 experts including professionals, scholars, agri-scientists and high government officials from home and abroad attended the two-day conference and exchanged views on development and related issues.

According to the officials, the conference has decided to initiate three projects for poverty alleviation through providing supports, agriculture insurance for marginal farmers and researches on disaster issues as well as other matters.

One of the projects is: a four-year Rural Life Plan for Secured Old Age involving Taka 5.5 crore covering three districts for alleviating poverty and improving the living standard of elderly and young people in rural areas by providing them with necessary supports.

The other project is: a five-year Agriculture Insurance Scheme for Sustainable Family Farming at a cost of Taka over 1.5 crore by involving the disaster-affected marginal farmers under the existing insurance facilities.

The last project is: a number of studies by involving the Union Parishad on Disaster Management, Communication Pattern in Agriculture Extension and Impact of Remittance Flow on Investment and Rural Livelihood.

Addressing the function, M Khairul Kabir said the academy is looking forward to a prosperous future by reducing poverty through addressing the emerging challenges in rural areas.

The poverty has been reduced to 40 percent in 2005 from 56.6 percent in 2001, he said and called for further accelerating it to attaining the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and implement the Poverty Reduction Strategies (PRS) in the country.