The New Nation - Internet Edition

Shamim Janangir from Tangail

Success of adaptation of urea deep placement technology in paddy fields, known as 'guti' urea in Bangladesh encouraged farmers in several numbers of Asian and African countries.

This was revealed by President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of International Centre for Soil Fertility and Agriculture Development (IFDC) Amit H Roy who is visiting in Bangladesh.

He said IFDC has received tremendous response from paddy farmers in more than ten countries in Asia and Africa about application of 'guti' urea replacing traditional spreading urea in their field.

"If the technology spreads in its own way then it will be taken by farmers in American and European countries within couple of years," he said.

He said the urea use has expanded rapidly in Bangladesh during the last two years. "Only 50,000 hectares of Boro land came under 'guti' urea application three years back which has now gone up to 10 lakh hectares of land this year," the IFDC CEO said.

He informed that a total of five lakh hectares of land came under guti urea application in Vietnam and Laos to follow the example in application of good results of Bangladesh.

Farmers needed to apply nearly 100 kilogram of urea per acre of paddy land during traditional application of urea whereas it was only 70 kilogram in case of 'guti' urea.

Replying to a question, he said that the IFDC has prepared a technology to easily apply 'guti' urea in the field.

"Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute (BARI) and experts of IFDC worked together to develop the technology here," he said adding that the expert team would be able to present the technology within two years.

"I will meet Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina with a request to expand guti urea across the country", Amit Roy said.

"If it can be expanded across the country, paddy production could be increased nearly 20 per cent", he said. He said that a farmer would be able to get benefit of Tk 14,000 per hectare of land. The IFDC chief visited different areas in Tangail and talked with farmers who applied 'guti' urea here. Farmers expressed their satisfaction over using 'guti' urea in their field.