RAJSHAHI, March 20, 2020 (BSS) – Agricultural scientists and researchers
urged the grassroots farmers to use eco-friendly pest management to protect
environment and produce chemical-free food grains and vegetables.
Substantial and sustainable promotion of eco-friendly pest management can
also be a vital means of protecting and conserving the beneficial insects
through controlling the harmful and destructive ones, they told a farmers’
field day meeting.
Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) organized the meeting titled
“Leveraging Diversity for Ecology Based Pest Management” at Alimganj village
under Paba Upazila in the district yesterday.
More than 100 farmers both male and female joined the meeting and they
were imparted training on how to promote eco-friendly pest management
effectively.
BRRI Chief Scientific Officer Dr Aminul Islam, Principal Scientific
Officer Mosaddeque Hossain and Senior Scientific Officers Dr Harun-Or-Rashid
and Dr Anwar Uddin addressed the meeting as resource persons disseminating
their expertise on the issue.
Dr Aminul Islam told the farmers that excessive and indiscriminate uses of
toxic agro-chemicals generate different kinds of risks and trouble in both
land and water posing a serious threat to the biodiversity and beneficial
insects in particular.
The issue of land and water pollution is being adjudged as a serious
threat to the public health in the present context of exorbitant use of
chemical pesticides in farms, he said.
Using chemical pesticides in farming fields is always harmful to soil,
water, crops, environment and public health as a whole. So, there is no way
to give utmost importance towards promoting good best practices in
agriculture widely, Dr Islam added.