Experts at a workshop on ‘Integrated Rice Advisory Systems’ organized by the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) said that managing paddy production through weather forecasting would mitigate crop losses.
If the disaster warning system can be strengthened through forecasting, it will be possible to maintain sustainable production by reducing the losses of farmers. This was stated by the speakers at a virtutal workshop organized by BRRI Agromet and Crop Modeling Lab on Monday.
According to a study by BRRI, when the temperature rises to 35 degrees Celsius or higher during flowering from the young stalks of rice plants, the rice becomes sticky. Excessive heat and humidity increase the fungal disease of the plant and similarly increase the number of insects. The amount of saline land in coastal areas is increasing due to low rainfall.
Due to climate change, 30 to 40 lakh hectares of land is being affected by drought every year. Meanwhile, thousands of acres of paddy are being destroyed by flash floods every year. In these cases, if the farmers are warned through the weather forecast, it is possible to reduce the amount of losses to the farmers. BRRI Director General Md. Shahjahan Kabir presided over the webinar while Ministry of Agriculture Additional Secretary (Research Wing) Kamala Ranjan Das was present as the chief guest.
Director of the Bangladesh Meteorological Department Md. Azizur Rahman, Director of BRRI (Administration and General Care) Md. Abu Bakar Siddique and director (research) Dr. Md. Mohammad Khalequzzaman, Summit-Bangladesh’s consultant Dr. Moinus Salam was involved as an expert, Agromet Information System Development Project director Dr. Shah Kamal Khan among others were present at the workshop. BRRI Agricultural Meteorology and Crop Modeling Laboratory Coordinator Niaz Md. Farhat Rahman said, “With the implementation of weather forecast based agricultural advisory services, it is possible to increase crop yield by seven percent to 10 percent, reduce production cost by about 15 percent and increase total income by 31 percent to 36 percent. However, now only five percent of the country's paddy farmers are availing weather forecasting based agricultural advisory services. Researchers claim that if cultivation is done according to forecast-based agricultural advice, the yield of paddy will increase by at least seven percent which will add 0.17 million tons of paddy to the national food basket.
If the weather forecasting based agricultural advisory services are properly implemented in the entire paddy production system, then the investment in this case will be Tk 51 to Tk 73.
Speaking as the chief guest, Kamalranjan Das, Additional Secretary, Research Wing, Ministry of Agriculture, said that agriculture and farmers in Bangladesh are facing increasing climate risks, which pose a threat to food security and socio-economic development of the country. The main food grain of Bangladesh is paddy, which is directly related to the food security of the country as well as the livelihood of the agricultural community. Therefore, the national agricultural policy emphasizes on strengthening the warning system to provide advice to the farmers through weather forecasting. To this end, the Government of Bangladesh has also taken many important initiatives.
Bangladesh Rice Research Institute Director General. Md. Shahjahan Kabir said that 60 percent of paddy yield depends on proper management. Farmers will benefit if the forecast and advice on paddy cultivation and meteorology prepared by BRRI Agromet Lab is disseminated through the field level officials of the Department of Agricultural Extension and it will help in increasing the yield and overall production of paddy.
