Agriculture adviser urges Barind authority to work for farmers' welfare

Home and Agriculture Adviser Lt. Gen. Md. Jahangir Alam Chowdhury (Retd.) today asked the Barind Multipurpose Development Authority (BMDA) to work more for the development and interest of farmers as it has further opportunities to do so. 

"BMDA has more work opportunities for the development and interest of the farmer," he said as a chief guest at a view-exchange meeting with the farmers at Sarmongla Eco-park of Godagari upazila in Rajshahi this afternoon. At the meeting, the farmers said that Rajshahi has cold storages or storing facilities for general potatoes but there is no cold storage for storing seed potatoes, according to a press release of the ministry.

The adviser replied the government is constructing "non-refrigerated model houses" to store potatoes for small and medium farmers through the Department of Agricultural Marketing. He also revealed the government has imported improved potato seeds from the Netherlands to increase production.

The adviser, however, made a call to the farmers to be careful so price of potato seeds doesn't increase. The farmers brought up the issues of high acidity in soil of this region due to low pH, which is causing decline of production. They drew the attention of the adviser to solve this problem. The advisor directed BMDA to take necessary measures to minimize the problem through research.

He also inquired about the farmers and listened to their pros and cons, and advised them to go for profitable crop production and crop diversification. The adviser earlier visited the "Transmission of water from Padma River to Sarmongla ditch by underground pipe line" project.

He also released fish fry in Sarmongla ditch and planted mango saplings of "Blackstone" variety in Sarmongla Eco-park. Later, he visited Kalipur Irrigation System operated by the BMDA. BMDA Chairman Dr M Asaduzzaman and Executive Director Md. Shafiqul Islam were present.