Staff correspondent :<\/p>\n
Speakers at a seminar today said adoption of
\nfarmers’ friendly technology as well as low-cost locally manufactured devices
\nand database, ensuring competitive prices and necessary policy support to
\nfarmers would help materialize building ‘Smart Agriculture’ in Bangladesh.<\/p>\n
They said adoption of smart agriculture practices like precision agriculture
\ncould potentially increase agricultural productivity by 20 to 30 percent,
\nreduce input costs by up to 20 percent and increase farmers’ income by 30 to
\n40 percent.<\/p>\n
The speakers came up with such remarks at a seminar on “Smart Agriculture:
\nIssues and Challenges in Value Chain Development” organised by Dhaka Chamber
\nof Commerce and Industry (DCCI) at its auditorium in the capital today.<\/p>\n
Speaking at the seminar as the chief guest, State Minister for Commerce
\nAhasanul Islam Titu said a full functioning one-point service desk would be
\nestablished at DCCI soon to provide online IRC and ERC issuance facilities to
\nthe importers and exporters.<\/p>\n
“By the end of this year, all services of Registrar of Joint Stock Companies
\n(RJSC) will also be paperless,” he further informed.<\/p>\n
Titu also emphasized on a need-based locally tailored farmers-friendly
\ntechnology to implement smart agriculture in the country.<\/p>\n
It is equally important to ensure better and logical prices of produces both
\nfor producers and consumers and for that he underscored the need for a smooth
\nsupply chain process including adequate organized commodity markets across
\nthe country, the state minister said.<\/p>\n
He also said that standardization and certification process would ensure
\nbetter and genuine product specifying the exact origin of variety.<\/p>\n
The state minister for Commerce also informed that the Logistic Policy-2024
\nis going to be a game-changer for the businessmen. He reiterated the need for
\nICT backed research and innovation to bring in more diversification in the
\nproduct basket.<\/p>\n
While speaking as special guest, Md. Shamsul Arefin, secretary of Information
\nand Communication Technology Division, said: “For smart agriculture, we need
\nto make our farmers or producers smart at fast.”<\/p>\n
He also stressed on smart innovation, research and development and a strong
\nknowledge-based economy in the agriculture sector.<\/p>\n
“Without smart government, no other sector can be smart…Smart citizen and
\nskilled government officers, having good human attribute, honesty and
\nintegrity, will help the government to be smart,” he added.<\/p>\n
DCCI President Ashraf Ahmed said: “From the farmers to the consumers, we see
\nat least 40-45 percent post-harvest loss.”<\/p>\n
Noting that logistic chain and market chain are two very important but
\nseparate challenges, he said to mitigate post-harvest losses, cool-chain and
\nsmoother transportation system are necessary.<\/p>\n
“Moreover, we should develop a waste management system so that we can recycle
\nthe agriculture wastages into other product,” he added.<\/p>\n
Ashraf also termed inefficiencies in the supply chain, market access barriers
\nand limited value addition as few bottlenecks for accelerating value chain
\ndevelopment in Bangladesh’s agriculture sector.<\/p>\n
“But, our mobile financial service (MFS) network in Bangladesh is
\nimpressively strong and if we want we can get the subsidy to the hand of
\nfarmers directly through MFS within a short time,” he added.<\/p>\n
He also emphasized for an updated database to create a smart agriculture
\nenvironment.<\/p>\n
Malik Talha Ismail Bari, senior vice-president of the DCCI, in his welcome
\nremarks said, in recent decades, Bangladesh has made a significant stride in
\nagricultural development. “But, climate change poses a severe threat, with
\nincreasing frequency of floods, cyclones and droughts that disrupt
\nagricultural productivity a lot.”<\/p>\n
Fahad Ifaz, co-founder and CEO of iFarmer Limited, presented the first
\nkeynote paper on “Opportunities of Frontier Tech Automation in Agro Value
\nChain”.<\/p>\n
He highlighted that frontier technology in agriculture can reduce information
\nasymmetries for farmers, facilitate greater access to market and services,
\nreduce cost, reduce climate impact, improve yielding.<\/p>\n
According to McKinsey and Company, frontier technology in agriculture could
\npotentially add US$500 billion to world GDP by 2030, he added.<\/p>\n
Mohammad Sakib Khaled, senior manager (programme) of Swisscontact presented
\nanother keynote paper on “Addressing Key Issues and Challenges of Smart
\nAgricultural Value Chain”.<\/p>\n
In order to fight against the climate change, a massive transformation of
\nagriculture sector is needed, he said, adding: “Local investment in the
\nlivestock sector is increasing in Bangladesh and in next 10-year it will be
\ndoubled.”<\/p>\n
Sakib noted limited supply of quality inputs, lack of good agricultural
\npractices, post-harvest losses, climate vulnerability, lack of integrated
\nsupply chain and lack of policy implementation are responsible for the
\noverarching gaps in the agriculture value chain.<\/p>\n
In the panel discussion, National Senior Lead Agronomist Md. Abdul Kader, FAO
\nRepresentation in Bangladesh, Vice-president of BSAFE Foundation and Former
\nSecretary of Ministry of Agriculture Anwar Faruque, Additional Director of
\nAgricultural Credit Department in Bangladesh Bank (BB) Dr. Md. Abu Bakkar
\nSiddique, Chief Executive Officer Aqualink Bangladesh Limited Sayed Rizban
\nHussain, CEO & Founder of Win Incorporate Dr. Kashfia Ahmed, Founder\/CEO Dr.
\nChashi Incorporation Medina Ali, Director & CEO of Kranti Associates Limited
\nDr. Muhammad Risalat Siddique took part and shared their views.<\/p>\n
The speakers emphasized for low cost farmers-friendly locally manufactured
\ndevice and database, ensuring competitive price for the farmers and policy
\nsupport to implement smart agriculture. They also urged for good agricultural
\npractice (GAP) and utilizing ICT for commercial farming.<\/p>\n
DCCI Vice-president Md. Junaed Ibna Ali and members of the Board of Directors
\nwere present, among others, during the event.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Staff correspondent : Speakers at a seminar today said adoption of farmers’ friendly technology as well as low-cost locally manufactured devices and database, ensuring competitive prices and necessary policy support to farmers would help materialize building ‘Smart Agriculture’ in Bangladesh. They said adoption of smart agriculture practices like precision agriculture could potentially increase agricultural productivity by 20 to 30 percent, reduce input costs by up to 20 percent and increase farmers’ income by 30 to 40 percent. The speakers came up with such remarks at a seminar on “Smart Agriculture:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8482,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"limit_modified_date":"","last_modified_date":"","rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"yes","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_5980380192037842_108390337697511":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bangladesh"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyenglishtimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyenglishtimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyenglishtimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyenglishtimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyenglishtimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8481"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyenglishtimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8481\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8483,"href":"https:\/\/dailyenglishtimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8481\/revisions\/8483"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyenglishtimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyenglishtimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyenglishtimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyenglishtimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}