Speakers at a meeting stressed the need for application of new technologies in agriculture for yielding better crops.

Addressing the ceremony, State Minister for Agriculture, Mirza Fakrul Islam Alamgir said that Bangladeshi farmers are out of touch technologies in cultivating their lands in their relentless effort to supply food for the people.

He said this while addressing at a publication ceremony of a book titled "Innovations of Rural Extension: Case Studies from Bangladesh" at CIRDAP auditorium in the city yesterday. International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) Bangladesh organised the publication ceremony.

The book is the documentation of major areas of research on extension methods under Poverty Elimination Through Rice Research Assistance (PETRRA), a project funded by Department of International Development (DFID) and managed by IRRI in close collaboration with BRRI.

The project explored the development of innovative extension mechanisms through a learning-by-doing process with multiple service providers.

Topics addressed include seed production, marketing and distribution systems, crop and soil fertility management, post harvest technologies, mobile pump production and marketing, aromatic rice value added chains, and integrated rice duck farming.

The minister said, "Publication of such a book would go a long way in disseminating new technologies among the farmers," he said.

He informed that the government has allocated Taka 12 hundred crore as subsidy in the national budget for the fiscal year 2005-06 to improve the agriculture sector.

Ibrahim Khalil, Director General, Department of Agricultural Extension, observed that new technologies could be socially acceptable and economically viable.

Dr. M. Mahiul Haque, Director General of Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BIRI), IIRI Representative for Bangladesh, Dr Moel P. Magor, Dr. Golam Rahman, Professor and Chairman at the Department of Mass Communication and Journalism, University of Dhaka, Reaz Ahmed, Chief Reporter of the Daily Star, also spoke at the ceremony. Dr. Kazi Shahabuddin, Director General of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, chaired the ceremony.