RAJSHAHI, Oct 22, 2020 (BSS)- Experts at a meeting urged the field level
agricultural officials to disseminate agro-meteorological services to farmers
in order to increase agricultural productivity and assist farmers in coping
with weather and climate extremes.
They also asked them to provide support to establish a science-based agro-
meteorological information system to develop appropriate information and
products so that the farmers in general can derive total benefits of the
services.
The experts came up with the instruction while addressing a daylong
regional workshop 2020-2021 held at Party point and Community Centre in
Rajshahi city on Wednesday.
Regional office of the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) hosted
the workshop on behalf of its project titled “Agro-Meteorological Information
Systems Development” with the main thrust of sensitizing the field level
agricultural officials and others concerned to the issue.
DAE Additional Director Sudhendra Nath Roy addressed the workshop as the
chief guest, while Director of the project Dr Shah Kamal Khan was in the
chair.
During his keynote presentation, DAE Deputy Director Khayer Uddin Mollah
gave an overview of the project along with its aims and objectives and
implementation strategy.
In his remarks, Sudhendra Nath Roy said there is an opportunity to provide
reliable agro-meteorological information to farming communities effectively.
Agro-meteorological information for sustainable agricultural development is
needed to disseminate information to the farmer in their understandable
language to plan their farming activities more efficiently.
Agriculturist Sudhen Roy urged the participants to deliver agro-
meteorological information through a number of dissemination mechanisms that
will provide the agricultural sector with a decision support information
system to mitigate climate-related agricultural production risks.
He also called for strengthening of capacity at different levels to enable
the development and effective delivery of climate information services to the
agricultural sector.
More than 60 district and upazila level agricultural officials and
scientists from all four districts in the region joined the workshop and many
of them took part in its open discussion sharing views on how to disseminate
agro-meteorological services to farmers effectively.