RAJSHAHI, Nov 25, 2020 (BSS) – Speakers at a daylong training called for largely using modern technologies like Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD) to lessen pressure on underground water resources in the drought-prone Barind area.
They also urged all the government entities concerned to put in their best efforts to promote the water saving technologies successfully.
The training workshop titled “Water Efficient Technology AWD in Paddy Cultivation” held in the city on Tuesday.
DASCOH Foundation and Syngenta Foundation jointly hosted the event in DASCOH seminar hall in association with Introducing Water Efficient Technologies in Barind Tract Project.
A number of 30 deep tube-well operators and two sub-assistant agriculture officers joined it along with the trainees.
The two development organizations have been implementing the four-year project in the drought-prone Barind area since 2018 last with the main thrust of enhancing agro-water efficiency, reducing ground-water extraction and increasing farmers’ income by introducing water efficient technology for irrigation with financial support of World Bank Group.
Deputy Director of the Department of Agricultural Extension Shamsul Haque, Regional Agriculture Information Officer Abdullah-Hil-Kafi and Chief Executive Officer of DASCOH Foundation Akramul Haque addressed the training workshop as focal persons.
Executive Engineer of Barind Multipurpose Development Authoirty Tariqul Islam, Assistant Manager Monirul Islam and Project Managers Shahidul Islam and Farhanul Haque conducted the training sessions as resource persons disseminating their expertise on the issue.
In his remarks, Shamsul Haque said promotion of wide-ranging AWD technology has become an urgent need in the drought-prone Barind tract to protect its soil health from further degradation.
He said the farmers in the vast Barind tracts are being encouraged to adopt AWD, an irrigation method which helps save water in aquifers amidst an abnormal decline in the level of underground water in recent days.
Agricultureist Haque said adoption of the irrigation method in Boro farming massively can reduce use of underground water by 30 percent while simultaneously ensuring additional yield.
Abdullah-Hil-Kafi said the farmers generally use 3,000 to 3,200 liters of water for irrigation to produce one kilogramme of paddy. But, the paddy hardly needs 1,500 to 2,000 liters under the AWD technology.
He said adoption of the method would result in a fivefold reduction in water requirement and save 30 liters of diesel used for irrigation and produce an additional 500 kilogrammes of paddy per hectare.