Experts at an event stress use of appropriate technology and crop production knowledge to limit the damage caused by natural disasters.
Referring to a research, they said farmers can raise their income by up to 36 per cent through using validated weather forecasts.
The research said their income could be increased by avoiding loss from natural disasters, reducing input costs, and raising yield notably through integrating their farming with weather forecasts.
The remarks were made in a workshop, organised by the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) Agromet and Crop Modeling Lab to release the
findings of a study titled 'Validating forecast-based rice crop management research findings through farmers' participation in 2019-20 and 2020-21 Boro season' on the Integrated Rice Advisory Systems (IRAS).
The study was conducted at different locations in Habiganj, Gazipur, Rajshahi, Barisal and Rangpur districts during the Boro season.
Senior Scientific Officer of BRRI Niaz Md Farhat Rahman presented a paper on the occasion.
The paper mentioned that all plans and policies, like Bangladesh Delta Plan 2100, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030, National Agricultural Policy 2018 and National Agricultural Extension Policy 2020, have given utmost priority to use of appropriate technology and crop production knowledge to limit the damage caused by natural disasters.
The study found the farmers, who used weather forecast-based advisory services (WFBAS), could minimise their rice cultivation cost by almost 15 per cent than that of conventional farmers' practice (FP).
In this way, the farmers using WFBAS were able to raise their production by 10 per cent and net income by on an average 36 per cent in the research areas in 2019-20 Boro season than that of FPs.
BRRI Director General Dr Md Shahjahan Kabir said 60 per cent of paddy yield depends on proper management.
Farmers would be benefitted, if the forecast and advice on paddy cultivation and meteorology - prepared by Agromet Lab - are disseminated through field-level officials of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), he opined.
Agromet Modeling and Lab was established in 2016, emphasising climate sustainable agricultural technologies and their expansion at farmers' level.
Director of BMD Azizur Rahman, Consultant of CIMMYT-Bangladesh Dr Moin Us Salam, Director of Agromet Information System Development Project of DAE Shah Kamal Khan, meteorologist S M Kamrul Hasan, and RIMES Bangladesh country program leader Raihanul Haque Khan, also spoke, among others.
