Green Super Rice Project training course held in Bangladesh

The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) jointly organized a crop management training course on Green Super Rice (GSR) for researchers and extension agents in Gazipur, Bangladesh on 6-7 September 2015. It was attended by 32 participants from BRRI, BRAC, and the Department of Agricultural Extension. The primary objective of this activity was to enhance the skills of extension agents on crop management of newly identified GSR cultivars for varietal release. In addition, emphasis was laid on training these extension agents so they could teach and assist the farmers further in the target regions in Bangladesh.

Dr. Jiban Krishna Biswas, BRRI director general, welcomed the participants and addressed them on the importance of such a training activity, especially when two GSR varieties—BRRIdhan69 and BINAdhan17GSR—have been released in Bangladesh. He also mentioned the partnership of BRRI and IRRI and the importance of extending their program not only in their research centers, but also to other organizations such as BRAC. Dr. Md. Islam Uddin Mollah, chief scientific officer and BRRI training head, also welcomed all the participants in behalf of BRRI.

Dr. Jauhar Ali, IRRI scientist, gave an overview of the GSR status in Asia and stressed the way forward of upscaling the seeds with a package of practices for newly released varieties. Dr. Helal Uddin Ahmed, GSR project coordinator at BRRI, gave the update on the status of the project and the performance of GSR cultivars in Bangladesh. The topics covered on the first training day were Integrated Pest Management, with Dr. Abdul Latif and Dr. Nur Ahmed as resource persons from BRRI, and a lecture on the Rice Crop Manager given by Dr. Abhijit Saha, also from BRRI. Quality seed production and statistical tools were discussed on the following day by Dr. Md. Khalequzzaman of BRRI and Ms. Rose Imee Zhella Morantte of IRRI, respectively.

The participants expressed their keen interest on Green Super Rice and, at the end of the course, they were provided with materials to impart their newly acquired knowledge to a minimum of 100 farmers for each participant in the target region.


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