GAIBANDHA, OCT 18, 2020(BSS)- A day long training of trainers (TOT) on ‘Vine Multiplication, Root Production and Alternate Use Of Orange Fleshed Sweet Potato (OFSP) under the auspices of Development and Delivery of Bio fortified (DDBIO) Crops at Scale was held at the training room of Gana Unnayan Kendra(GUK) at sadar upazila of the district today.
GUK, a leading none government organization which is implementing the programme arranged the function.
Deputy Director(DD) of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) attended the function as chief guest and Senior Scientific Officer(SSO) of Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute(BARI) Dr. Md. Jahangir Alam was present at the event as the special guest while project Coordinator of DDBIO programme Mahmudul Hasan Rumen presided over the function.
Speaking on the occasion, DD of the DAE, Agriculturist Masudur Rahman underscored the need for growing BARI innovated vitamin enriched OFSP at larger scale at farmers’ level to meet the demand of vitamin A which is very vital for human body.
Earlier, Agricultural Research and Development specialist of CIP Monwar Hossain made a power point presentation on the programme and said, the programme is being implemented by GUK at Sadar and Fulchhari upazilas of Gaibandha district, Pirgachha and Kaunia upazilas of Rangpur district and Sadar and Rajarhat Upazilas of Kurigram district from 2019 with the financial support of UKAID and CIP-Bangladesh in cooperation with BARI.
Necessary measures had been taken to produce OFSP by the 6000 selected farmers of Gaibandha, Rangpur and kurigram districts this year and they would go for harvest in coming March, 2021 he added.
Technological and other supports were also being provided from the programme to produce the OFSP on the land of the farmers properly, he further added,
SSO of BARI Dr. Md. Jahangir Alam said, vitamin A malnutrition is a major public health concern of the developing countries and is responsible for millions of deaths annually among the children.
He urged all to produce vitamin A enriched OFSP at farmers’ level to fulfill its demand, he added.
A total of 28 participants including 12 Sub Assistant Agriculture Officers of the DAE, 12 agriculture volunteers and four GUK staff took part in the training.