Matia for mechanized agriculture to raise productivity

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DHAKA, Dec 11, 2017 (BSS) – Agriculture Minister Begum Matia Chowdhury today said there is no alternative to mechanization in agriculture sector for keeping the crop productivity rising.

Due to labour crisis, there is no way of agriculture mechanization for increasing crop productivity, the minister said this as the chief guest while addressing a seminar marking 33rd SAARC Charter Day held on Sunday in the city, a press release said today.

“We have achieved tremendous success in agriculture sector due to farmers’ friendly policy of the present government,” Matia said, adding that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina conferred with the CERES’ award by the World Food Programme (WFP) in 1999 as its recognition.

Marking the day, the SAARC Agriculture Center (SAC), Bangladesh Agriculture Research Council (BARC), Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute (BARI), Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI), BSRI, KGF, CYMMIT, IRRI and ACI were jointly organised exhibition cum regional seminar on “Agricultural Mechanization for Sustainable Intensification of Agriculture”.

Earlier, Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal attended the first session of the seminar as the chief guest.

Chaired by BARC’s Executive Chairman of BARC Dr Baghya Rani Banik, the inaugural session of the seminar was also addressed, among others, by Additional secretary of the Agriculture Ministry Mohammad Nazmul Islam and SAC Director Dr SM Bakhtiar.

On December 8 in 1985, a total of eight countries of the region– Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Maldives– signed ‘SAARC Charter’ in the first SAARC conference.