Korea-Bangladesh working together to develop Cold-tolerant Rice

Korea-Bangladesh working together to develop Cold-tolerant Rice



Scientists of Korea and Bangladesh are working jointly under a project to develop modern farm machinery and research capacity along with a cold-tolerant rice variety, said a press release issued by the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) yesterday.

The BRRI has already been provided with a number of facilities for that including a rice-breeding laboratory (molecular laboratory) and cold-tolerant rice screening protocols, manual carrier, harvesting machines, power weeder, rice mill, direct seeding machines and crop cutting machines.

For completion of the project, a modern research workshop building has been constructed on the Farm Machinery and Post-harvest Technology Division premises at the BRRI headquarters in Gazipur. The Korean International Cooperation Agency (Koica) is providing the necessary support in this regard.

The details of the programme were revealed at a seminar of the Koica-assisted project in the BRRI auditorium yesterday.

Additional Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture Md Anwarul Islam Sikder was the chief guest, while Korean counsellor and Deputy Chief of mission to Bangladesh Kim Hyun-Joo was the guest of honour. Koica resident representative Kim Bok-Hee was the special guest with BRRI Director General Dr Md Syedul Islam in the chair. BRRI Director (Admin) Dr Jiban Krishna Biswas also spoke on the occasion.

Principal Scientific Officer (PSO) of Farm Machinery and Post-harvest Technology Division of BRRI Dr Md Durrul Huda and PSO of BRRI Plant Breeding Division Dr Partha Sarathi Biswas presented the keynote paper in the seminar. Korean mechanisation specialist Hakkyu Kim also presented a paper on agricultural machinery.

BRRI Director General Dr Md Saidul Islam said it was a demand of time to use modern machinery in agriculture. To fulfil that demand, scientists of Korea and Bangladesh have been working together, and it is very likely to usher a new era in developing farm machinery in our country, he added.