RAJSHAHI, April 19, 2019 (BSS)- Speakers at a participatory discussion here
on Thursday put emphasis on ensuring a sustainable land management to address
the existing challenges of enhancing land productivity and water use
efficiency in Barind region.
The speakers viewed that time has come to stimulate innovative
possibilities with building a shared understanding to amplify the potentials
and reduce the adversities in the dried areas.
Measures should be strengthened to improve land resources and ecosystems
including soil, water, flora and fauna, they added.
The speakers were addressing a daylong validation meeting on Sustainable
Land Management (SLM) organized by Barind Multipurpose Development Authority
(BMDA) in its conference hall in the city.
More than 30 scientists, researchers, development activists and other
stakeholders attended the meeting initiated by a project titled “Establishing
National Land Use and Land Degradation Profile towards Mainstreaming SLM
Practices in Sector Policies”.
BMDA Chairman Dr Akram Hossain Chowdhury addressed the meeting as chief
guest with its Executive Director Engineer Abdur Rashid in the chair.
Professor Nurul Alam from Department of Crop Science and Technology in
Rajshahi University, Additional Director of Department of Agriculture
Extension Deb Dulal Dhali and BMDA Superintending Engineers Shamsul Huda and
Dr Abul Kashem also spoke.
During keynote presentations, Dr Jalal Uddin Soaib, coordinator of the
project, and its focal person ATM Rafiqul Islam gave an overview of the
project and its implementation strategy.
They told the meeting that the two-year project is intended to increase
understanding of people about land use and state of land degradation
alongside mainstreaming SLM in every sector.
As a whole, the scheme will focus on land degradation and other critical
environmental hazards and demonstrate practical solutions through awareness
building and engagement of stakeholders, organisers said.
In his remarks, Dr Akram Chowdhury said ensuring a prudent use of land
resources has become a major challenge as the agricultural land in the
country is shrinking at an alarming rate.
He laid importance on evolving time-befitting ways and means to protect
lands from further degradation against the backdrop of increasing demand for
land for development purposes and multipurpose uses.