Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute celebrates International Potato Day in a big way
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EmailBangladesh Agricultural Research Institute celebrates International Potato Day in a big way.
Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) celebrated International Potato Day on May 30. The theme of the day was “Harvesting Diversity, Feeding Hope”.
International Potato Day highlights the importance of the potato in fighting hunger and poverty and addressing environmental threats to the agri-food system. BARI Scientists, officials from different government organizations, high officials of various seed companies, representatives from the International Potato Center (CIP), advocacy partner Farming Future Bangladesh, agricultural representatives and people related to potato production, conservation and management participated in a procession to mark the day.
A discussion meeting was held at BARI's auditorium. The chairperson of the event, Dr. Debashish Sarker, Director General BARI presided the event and Dr. Shaikh Mohammad Bokhtiar, Executive Chairman, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC) was the chief guest of the event.
The former Director of BARI, Dr. Mohammad Hossain delivered the keynote presentation. He elucidated the importance of potato in protecting Bangladesh's food security. According to Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics 2023-24 report Bangladesh holds the seventh position in the world and third in Asia in terms of potato production.
In Bangladesh, potato has huge demand for human consumption, livestock feed, seed and in processing industries. The keynote speakers talked on how BARI potato researchers are addressing climate changes, pests, other biotic and abiotic stresses and deveopment of stress tolerant varieties.
In that context the BARI Director General talked about their research collaboration with Michigan State University to commercialize a 3R-gene late blight resistant Potato in Bangladesh under the Feed the Future Global Biotech Potato Partnership.
He noted that this innovative project aims to save 25-28% of production cost by reducing the need for fungicides and ensuring stable yield. This promises not only to enhance food security but also improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers and ensuring ecological balance in the environment.
The audience also displayed their enthusiasm about the project reading the project fact sheet and hoping that the late blight resistant potato will create a greater social and economic impact in near future.
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