technology used in bang

8/13/2019 Technology Used in Bang

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TECHNOLOGY USED IN AGRICULTURAL

SECTOR BY BANGLADESH

Information technology in agriculture of Bangladesh

Technology Adoption and Agricultural extension

The potential role of agriculture as an engine for economic development has long been

recognized . Since these minor contributions of Schultz (1964), Hemi and Rattan (1971), and

Mellor (1998), there has been a large body or theoretical and empirical literature on the

potential multiplier effects of agricultural growth on non-agricultural sectors(Berlet, de

Jeanery and Sedulity 2009). Cross-country and country-specific econometric evidence has

indicated that GDP growth generated in Agriculture can be particularly effective in increasing

expenditures and incomes of the poor (Legion and Sedulity 2007, Bravo-Ortega and

Alderman 2005, Ravalli onand Chen 2007).

Despite the development of important agricultural innovations during that time .Yet data on

adoption of improved agricultural technologies paint a picture of low levels of adoption in

developing countries, particularly sub-Saharan Africa. Broadly speaking, technology is the

relationship between inputs and outputs(Foster And Rosinweed 2010), or the set of

hardware (physical) and software(techniques) tools That allow for a different mapping of

inputs to outputs. In the context of agriculture, Hardware refers to improved cultivars(seeds),fertilizers and pesticides, whereas software Refers to practices such as inter-cropping,

mulching, and integrated pest management.

This context, technology adoption is therefore defined as the use of new tools or techniques

That relates inputs to outputs and the allocation of inputs (Foster and Rosinweed 2010).

Ligon and Sedulity (2007) find that 1% GDP growth originating in agriculture increased the

expenditures of the five poorest deciles on average by 3.7% in 42 developing countries.

Bravo- Ortega and Alderman(2005) find That an increase in GDP originating from

agricultural labor productivity is more effective in raising the incomes Of the poorest quintile

in developing countries than an equivalent increase in GDP coming from non-agricultural

labor productivity. Anderson and Feeder (2007) refer to hardware as the technology gap

and software as the management gap.

High Yielding Varieties Technology spurs agricultural productivity; this is evidenced by the

success of the Green Revolution which advanced agricultural development. The support for

agricultural innovation is grounded in the following reasons: first, there is a need to cater to

the needs of a growing market for agricultural products as should keep abreast of

continuously evolving agricultural technologies. Hence the benefits of agricultural

innovations are twofold: increase in yield and reduction in costs. In many cases, improvedagricultural technologies can also contribute to environmental improvement. They also may


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provide income and consumption of agricultural products is increasing and changing in

different ways.

Second, economies worldwide need to maintain a level of competitiveness and free up labor

that is employed off the farm. The use of high yielding varieties (HYVs) has resulted in manyof these economic benefits for the countries involved. HYVs pertain to a group of genetically

enhanced cultivars of crops (i.e. rice, maize, wheat) possessing characteristics of increased

growth rate, increased percentage of usable plant parts or an increased resistance to crop

insects and diseases as compared to traditional cultivars. For example, in some cases, high

yielding varieties possess a disease resistance built in that helps the crops resist rust, blight or

other fungus diseases. Such resistance can be a key component of an integrated pest

management program. HYVs of wheat and rice have spread more widely and quickly than

any other Technological innovation in the history of agriculture in the developing countries.

First introduced in the mid-1960s, they occupied about half of the total wheat and rice area in

the developing countries by 1982-83. Their area has increased since that time and will

undoubtedly continue to grow in the future. It was during the mid to late seventies when

HYV became a pervasive technological occurrence in Asia. Consequently, they have had a

huge effect on improving the levels of rice production in Asia, resulting in as dependency on

food grain imports for some countries. The widespread use of modern or high yielding

varieties has helped Bangladesh to move away from serious import dependence on rice,

despite a severe increase in population and a decrease in arable land since its independence in

1971. The cultivation of modern varieties reached 65% of the rice area in 2001- 2002.

One of the benefits of HYV adoption is that they may have a high degree of tolerance topests, insects, and diseases which can have damaging effects and reduce yields. Increased

crop yield and increased farm incomes are the results of their adoption. When included in an

IPM program, they provide an environmentally friendly approach to managing crops,

avoiding or reducing the use of toxic pesticides. Such an IPM strategy can lessen crop losses

due to pests, thus promoting sustainable agriculture. IPM gives the opportunity to manage

pests without causing danger to the environment and without causing health hazards to the

users (UNESCAP2000). IPM strategies promote the prudent use of pesticides. Although it

could lead to more labor hours, IPM practices produce increased yields and higher returns as

compared to the methods they seek to replace.

One of the benefits of HYV adoption is that they may have a high degree of tolerance to

pests, insects, and diseases which can have damaging effects and reduce yields. Increased

crop yield and increased farm incomes are the results of their adoption. When included in an

IPM program, they provide an environmentally friendly approach to managing crops,

avoiding or reducing the use of toxic pesticides. Such an IPM strategy can lessen crop losses

due to pests, thus promoting sustainable agriculture. IPM gives the opportunity to manage

pests without causing danger to the environment and without causing health hazards to the

users . IPM strategies promote the prudent use of pesticides. Although it could lead to more

labor hours, IPM practices produce increased yields and higher returns as compared to the

methods they seek to replace.


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The Impact of ICTs on Information, Agricultural Adoption and Agricultural Extension. The

rapid growth of mobile phones in developing countries over the past decade has introduced a

new search technology that offers several.

Mobile phone coverage and adoption in the developing world .Agricultural extension systemswere conceived of and developed in response to information asymmetries for poor farmers,

particularly those without access to other sources of communication (landlines, newspapers

and radios). While infrastructure investments still remain problematic in developing

countries,one of the dramatic changes over the course of the past decade has been an increase

in mobile phone coverage and adoption in developing countries estimated that most villages

will have coverage.

Newspapers are primarily concentrated in urban areas, are expensive cost of private

newspapers and are inaccessible to illiterate populations. Less than 19 percent of individuals

in read a newspaper at least once per week, with a much smaller share in rural areas. Landline

coverage has been limited, with less than one landline subscriber per 1,000people in 2008

(ITU 2009). Access to other search mechanisms, such as fax machines, e-mail, and Internet,

is similarly low, primarily due to their dependence upon landline infrastructure. And finally,

personal travel to different villages and markets to obtain information not only requires

transport costs, but also the opportunity costs of an individuals time. This can be substantial

in the context of unpaved roads and vast distances. Akers and Mite (2010) provide an

overview of the mechanisms through which mobile phone telephony can affect economic

development in including access to information, coordination among agents, job creation,

social networks and improved services six potential mechanisms through which mobilephones could potentially improve farmers access to information about agricultural

technologies and adoption more generally, and access to and use of agricultural extension

services in particular. Some of these are directly related to agricultural extension, whereas

other are outside of the agricultural extension system but still relatively for agricultural

technology adoption. How Mobile Phones can Improve Access to (Private) Information

Mobile phones can improve access to and use of private information about agricultural

technologies, thereby potentially improving farmers learning. Farmers have information

needs at various stages and on various topics for the agricultural production process.

Traditionally, farmers in developing countries have obtained such information from personal

visits, radio and to a lesser extent, landlines and newspapers. Mobile phones, by contrast, can

reduce costs of obtaining this information as compared with other information mechanisms.

E-learning typically involves the development of tele-centers that allow farmers to access

computers and internet resources. The types of information provided via these different

mechanisms are diverse, including market prices, weather and natural shocks, technical

advice on agricultural practices and inputs, and supply and buyers in local markets. Most of

these projects focus primarily on market prices, weather and transport, most likely because

they are low hanging fruit -- easy to collect and disseminate, fairly objective, less prone to

measurement error and useful (albeit quickly outdated and constantly changing). Information

on agricultural practices, and inputs, is less frequent and often used in agricultural hotlines,


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possibly because such information is more nuanced and difficult to convey. While all of these

mechanisms offer potential alternatives to or variations of traditional agricultural extension,

they are not without their challenges. First, the use of ICT-based agricultural extension is

highly dependent upon the type of information demanded and provided. For example, while

market information and weather might be easily disseminated via mobile phones (and replacetraditional extension

E-AGRICULTURE

E-AGRICULTURE COMMUNITY

Sharing Innovative Experiences and Knowledge About the Use of ICT for Rural

Development .www.e-agriculture.org Gerard Sylvester Knowledge and Information

Management Officer Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

About e-Agriculture

Agriculture is an emerging field focusing on the enhancement of agricultural and rural

development through improved information and communication processese-Agriculture

involves the conceptualization, design, development, evaluation and application of innovative

ways to use information and communication technologies (ICT) in the rural domain, with a

primary focus on agriculture

The e-Agriculture Community of Practice

An international initiative that aims to reinforce the value of global dialogue and cooperation

to address emerging issues around the role of ICT as an instrument of sustainable agricultural

and rural development.

The e-Agriculture Community of Practice is active on three levels:

Virtually using a web-based platform (www.e-agriculture.org)

Face-to-face meetings and eventsIn-country interventions through partners

The e-Agriculture Community of Practice

The Community includes:

Policy makers rural service providers development practitioners farmers NGO and CSO staff

researchers information and communication specialists in agriculture and rural development.

Over 7,000 members, from more than 150 countries.
http://www.e-agriculture.org/http://www.e-agriculture.org/http://www.e-agriculture.org/http://www.e-agriculture.org/


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Important issues identified by the community:

1.Mobile telephony in rural development

Mobile telephony in rural development overcomes the distance betweenindividuals/institutions, facilitating information and knowledge sharing strengthens social

networks and empowers individuals empowered Mobile telephony is being used to provide

information to the farmers ... through SMS and multimedia-supported systems .... through

public, private as well as NGO sector initiatives.

2. Public-private partnerships

Private partnerships in rural develompent occur at community level providing information

and advisory services addressing the needs of producers public sector mandates for provision

of information and services are enhanced through local context in a commercial environment

added by the private sector.Agricultural Technology Transfer (ATT)

Objective:

Refine and package technologies, which are profitable and sustainable (generated by theNARS/universities and others) and facilitate their wider dissemination for the farming and

small business communities.

Disseminate improved and profitable agricultural technologies through GO-NGO-PrivateOrganization (PO) in order to facilitate transfer of new information for wider adoption

attain higher productivity and harness greater income.

Stimulate and enhance capacity of the small and medium farmers and entrepreneursthrough linking farm producers with marketing channel to produce raw materials for agro-

based industries and value added products.

Strengthen research-extension and farmers-marketing linkages, capability of theBARC/NARS in technology refinement, dissemination capacity of the extension agencies

and NGOs/POs and develop human resources for effective program implementation.

Major components:

Technology transfer through partners NGOs Technology refinement and validation Entrepreneurship and contract production, and Capacity development


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Major activities:

Collection, collation, refinement, validation and transfer of agricultural technologiesavailable and wider adoption by GO/NGO/PO and farmers

Capacity building of the small and medium farmers (as comprises over 90% of the farmhouseholds) and entrepreneurs to adopt technologies and produce value added products

Further, strengthen the capability of the BARC/NARS in technology refinement andvalidation, and dissemination capacity of the extension agencies and NGO/POs and

develop human resources

Biotechnology

Biotechnology, a technology that is being used from time immemorial, has gained immense

speed in research and discovery with the advent of genetic engineering in the 1970s. This

again manifested itself through discovery of restriction enzymes, one type of molecular

scissors used to cut DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) in molecular biology laboratories

worldwide. Consequently, this technology has been changing the world through advancement

in agriculture, health, environment, medicine, pharmaceuticals, neutraceuticals,

beautyceuticals, and so on. All of these are achieved by playing with a unique genetic

material, namely DNA and their products RNAs (ribonucleic acid) and proteins among which

proteins are the eventual role players in showing/expressing the characteristics/conditions

which the DNA regions, called genes, are coded for.

With the use of genetic engineering, this once costly and rarely available drug has becomewidely marketed and cheaper. The ever-advancing pharmaceutical companies in Bangladesh

have started to develop separate and dedicated biotech units. For example, Incepta

Pharmaceuticals has formed Incepta Vaccines Limited. Pharmaceutical biotechnology is a

fascinating research area to explore and apply in our country, where collaboration between

universities and pharmaceutical companies in research and development can serve the ground

for scrupulous research work to generate novel drugs including life-saving ones. The Incepta

pharmaceuticals and some other pharmaceuticals are already making and marketing insulin

produced themselves

The forensic tests of world standard are possible to be carried out in Bangladesh at present.

This has become true with the establishment of National Forensic DNA Profiling Laboratory

at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH); since 2005 with the technique termed

DNA Fingerprinting it is able to perform paternity tests, criminal dispute in cases of rape and

murder. However, the countrys first-ever criminal investigation DNA Profiling Laboratory is

yet to be set up in the capital to facilitate biological investigation of criminal cases by

examining biological evidences like saliva, blood, hair and sperm through fingerprints and

footprints of the samples. Again, the government has launched seven DNA screening

laboratories as one-stop crisis centres in seven medical colleges including that of DMCH to


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ensure immediate fair justice for tortured women. So, biotechnology is beyond doubt ready to

serve the intelligence force for faster investigations of such criminal disputes.

A very exciting field of biotechnology is bioinformatics which is actually the marriage

between biology and computer science, where enormous amount of data that are beingproduced in the biological research laboratories

Without the traditional biotechnology approaches like breeding and marker-assisted selection

in agriculture, it would not be possible for us to meet the need of food for the ever-growing

population at such a high rate. This is pretty much understandable from the fact that the

country is now capable to produce adequate food that can feed more than double the

population of the 1970s with the same or less amount of land in hand. Hence, food security

is one of the many precious gifts of biotechnology to the world, especially for the developing

countries including ours. However, this wont be enough for the future. For an agro-basedcountry like Bangladesh biotechnology and genetic engineering has a lot to contribute. There

is an urge to develop stress-tolerant crop varieties of rice, jute and other crops to fight

environmental adversities like flood, drought and salinity etc. Several molecular biology

laboratories at the University of Dhaka are working on jute, rice and lentils. The Bangladesh

Academy of Sciences, through its programme in agriculture and life sciences under the

auspices of United Stated Department of Agriculture (USDA), is partially supporting quite a

good number of projects in the agricultural universities and research organisations.

Plant biotechnology holds a great promise for our country. Although golden rice can meet therequirement of vitamin A to avoid blindness, our poor people also suffer from other nutrient

deficiencies and hence some plants and vegetables could serve as a source of multiple

nutrients if engineered biologically in a proper fashion. Different public universities including

the agricultural ones and National Institute of Biotechnology (NIB) are working on various

facets of plant biotechnology. Besides developing better varieties, they also work on varieties

capable of fighting natural calamities. Thus, research on transgenic plant development,

GMOs (Genetically modified organisms), in other words, is going on in many laboratories

country-wide, which include developing pest/insect resistant varieties, salt-tolerant varieties

etc. Moreover, there are a good number of plant biotechnology companies such as BRACARDC, Lal Teer, etc. Another private venture on plant tissue culture development and

commercialisation has been taken at University of Rajshahi, where they worked on

strawberries and some exotic flowers that went on to successful commercialisation.

The future potential of plant biotechnology includes working on genetic modification of

herbal plants by modern technology to develop effective drugs, beautyceuticals and

neutraceuticals, development of rapid diagnostic tools and development of post-harvest

technology to minimise the loss of agricultural produce and many more. NIB has within its

many achievements micropropagation of different fruit and ornamental plants, and the

institute plans to work on transformation of genes of interests into various plant species.


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Adaption Technology

Salinity Intrusion in agriculture fields (SOIL)

Salinity intrusion increased by 27 % from 1973 to 2009 (SRDI, 2010) Farmers are extremely challenged with salinity After Cyclone Aila (2009), many farmers couldnt cultivate rice for three consecutive

years

How climate change induced hazards currently affects agriculture practices in the coast

of Bangladesh

Adaptation technology in practice: Flood Prone Areas

Floating Bed Preparation

Collection of materials (water-hyacinth and other aquatic vegetation) Making a floating bed (May to July)

Farming crops and season Mostly vegetables, both summer and winter Ball or cushion like structure Seedling raising

Growing vegetables Vegetables growing

People also grow vegetables for own consumption and sell surplus to the market

Income Women earns 5 USD/Day (May-June) for preparing Dolla (small ball

shaped structure)

Farmer earns 200 to 2000 USD/season depending on the size of the floatingbed

Homestead Vegetable Garden on raised plinth Most of the farmers now practice vegetable farming Vegetable farming at different level (adapting different degree of salinity) of raised

plinth

Traditional practices in coastal areas


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Mainly own consumption Alternate livelihoods option under saline condition Adaptation technology in practice: Drought Prone Areas Adjustments in irrigation for both rice and vegetable cultivation improve irrigation efficiency in water scarcity areas small water reservoir in the agriculture fields for irrigation

Animal Biotechnology

No genetic engineering or cloning is underway in Bangladesh for the development of

agriculturally relevant animals. Since the private sector has no capacity to engage in genetic

engineering or cloning, the only future possibility is for public sector research; the

Bangladesh Livestock Research Institution may in the future undertake such research efforts.

No legislation and regulations related to the development, commercial use and/or import of

bio-engineered or cloned animal products are in place; however, the Biosafety Guidelines and

National Biosafety Framework equally cover the bioengineered animal and fisheries products

along with plant products. National Guidelines for Fish and Animal Biotechnology 2006

establish objectives to promote: (i) acquisition of knowledge of and skills in animal and fish

biotechnology and (ii) development of biotechnology tools in the fields of fisheries and

livestock subject to optimum safety and acceptability. However, in a Muslim majorityconservative society, public perception of animal biotechnology and cloning is generally

sensitive.

GIS Technology

GIS, the computer based system, describes, stores, manipulates and analyze information

spatially and produces outputs in map and tabular form. It can integrate common database

operations such as query and statistical analysis of data and model results, with the unique

visualization and geographic analysis benefits offered by maps.

The activities of GIS at BARC are different and very important for the development of the

country.

The activities which were done by GIS are-

Digitizing the soil maps and this digitized map was linked to the Land Resource Inventory

(LRI) database, digitizing soil and land use maps of 326 Thanas and another 14 Thana maps

under processing, development of a comprehensive database on the present agricultural land

use, the estimation of the crop damage of the standing Transplant Aman rice and land

inundation (during devastating flood in 1998), extrapolated the potential suitability of 15different Farming System technology generated at different places of the country for the


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whole country. Human Resources Development programme was taken by the GIS project of

BARC to trained up the NARS subject matter specialists and the user groups.

Soil Resources Development Institute (SRDI) established a GIS unit in 1994 to make the

Thana Nirdeshika preparation easy, accurate and more applicable. 326 Thana Nirdeshika hasbeen published in collaboration with BARC. SRDI produced 44 different maps by using GIS

technology. Recently, Ministry of Agriculture, Department of Agricultural Extension, and

Surface Water Modeling Center are using GIS for different purposes. Different National

Planning ministers and organizations have been using AEZ/GIS system for macro and micro

planning purpose. The potential areas where AEZ/GIS system can be applied are- the

localized production planning, creation of scenarios and providing options to the decision

makers on with or without situation, diagnostic analysis of a situation, identification of

problems and thus prioritization of researchable areas, ground truthing of space and remote

sensing outputs, systematizing soil productivity, surveys and transfer of modern agro-

technologies.Further the AEZ/GIS database can be useful in the risk management modeling

and initiating risk loss assessment and aversion, crop growth modeling, land resource

conversion for sustained production, forestry, inland fisheries and potential lands for

commercial production of other commodities, addressing climate change scenarios of crop

production resulting from global warming, through green house gas emissions and rise in sea

level, developing agro-meteorological services, agricultural rehabilitation programmes and

water budgeting, decision Support Systems for agricultural programme planning and

technology transfer, categorization of farmers system and community development

programmes within AEZ regions and sub-regions.

technology used in bang

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