To overcome the shortage of salt and stress tolerant rice seeds on the coast, LEDARS organized a two-day training for the members of the Climate Resilient Groups on salt tolerant rice seed production. On February 8 at ten o’clock in the morning at the head office of LEDARS, the opening of the two-day training of paddy seed producers was announced.
Mohon Kumar Mondal, Executive Director of LEDARS presided over the inauguration of the rice seed production and conservation refresher training, and was present as the chairman.
Satkhira District BADC Assistant Director Md. Monowar Hossain Khan was the chief guest, Senior Scientific Officer Dr. Md. Babul Akhtar was present as a special guest, Shyamnagar Upazila Agriculture Officer SM Enamul Islam, Project Coordinator of LEDARS G. M Mosharaf Hossain, Monitoring Officer Ranajit Kumar Mondal and other staff of LEDARS were also present.
The president said, “LEDARS, a development organization, is trying to expand salt tolerant rice cultivation by distributing salt tolerant varieties of rice to farmers. But as such salt tolerant rice varieties are not enough in the market, it has not been possible to cultivate them on a large scale. So LEDARS has taken initiatives to solve the seed crisis by training and incentivizing farmers to produce salt tolerant rice seeds.”
The chief guest said, “Salinity in coastal areas is increasing day by day. Therefore, if salt tolerant varieties of rice are not cultivated here, the yield will be low. Farmers should be encouraged more to cultivate salt tolerant rice. For this, farmers should be provided with this type of training. I thank LEDARS for taking the initiative to provide such training to the rice seed producers.”