Seminar on climate impact on agriculture held in BAU

A seminar on the impact of climate on food security, economy, and livelihood of the communities was held at Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU).           

On Saturday (March 9) at 10:30 a.m., the seminar was jointly organised by the Department of Soil Science of BAU and the University of Salford in the conference room of the University's Agriculture Faculty conference room. Prof. Dr Md Anwarul Abedin from the BAU's Soil Science Department and Prof. Bingunath Ingirige from Salford University addressed the workshop as focal persons.

Prof. Bingunath said, "Climate change is not only a country's problem but an international one. As climate change has reduced agricultural production, poverty rates have also increased. Climate change has caused floods and landslides in various places. Heatwaves have been identified as a cause." 

Regarding climate change's impact on agriculture and livelihoods, he said, "Climate change has caused changes in seasons. Because of this, producing some high-yielding crops is heavily exploited, greatly affecting farmers' livelihoods in South and Southeast Asian countries."

Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture, Prof. Dr. Md. Golam Rabbani, head of the soil science department, Prof. Dr. Md Shafiqul Islam and University teachers and researchers were present.

The meeting also emphasised using modern technologies such as mitigation and irrigation technologies so that cultivating will be profitable and sustainable to ensure food security for the communities. The university teachers and researchers participated in the seminar's open discussion session. 

In this phase, the role of rivers and alluvial soil in agriculture, production of high-yielding and exportable agricultural products, farming using less water and reducing pressure on groundwater, emphasis on producing crops that yield in a short time, use of solar energy to reduce the impact of energy in agricultural production, the same crops for farmers are discussed. 

They also discussed the ongoing issues of climate change, constraints on food security and research expansion into solutions.