Bangladesh - Achievements

1. Overview
2. Country Strategy
3. Priorities
4. Key Program Managers
5. Current Projects
6. Concluded Projects
7. Achievements
8. Relevant Publications
9. Country Office
10. Country Portfolio
11. AusAid and Other Briefs
12. Fellowship Statistics

Achievements

Key indicators and performance for 2006-07

Indicators: Technical and economic feasibility of wheat production examined in southern Bangladesh, and options for further research and development determined

Performance: The study confirmed the long term financial and technical feasibility of growing wheat as a rabi season crop on residual moisture. ACIAR commissioned a project to underpin the further expansion of wheat into rice-fallow systems, with strong participation of NGOs.

Indicators: Integrated legume research program designed and initiated

Performance: Project aimed at expanding production of rabi season chickpeas and lentils initiated in NW of Bangladesh.

Achievements from the 2006-07 Annual Report

Current collaboration is mainly in the production and management of grain crops. Botrytis grey mould (BGM), considered the most important foliar disease of chickpeas in Bangladesh, has caused a substantial decline in chickpea production over the past decade. A project has screened a wide range of chickpea germplasm (including closely related wild species) for resistance to BGM under field conditions in Bangladesh and Nepal to provide a sound basis for genetic enhancement of host plant resistance to BGM. Field screening to identify chickpea lines with resistance to BGM took place in Bangladesh over four seasons. There were clear differences in reaction to BGM, as measured on a 1 to 9 rating scale at each location in all seasons. A series of on-farm trials was conducted in Bangladesh to evaluate various components of disease and crop management under farmers’ conditions and merge them with the evolving integrated crop management (ICM) package for chickpea. Using the results gathered in the 2002–03 season the project has assembled ICM packages, incorporating best-bet technologies for BGM management along with other optimum agronomic packages, and these have been tested in farmer-managed operational scale plots and compared with adjacent plots where prevailing farmers’ practice was followed. The trials found yield increases in five districts due to ICM were around 20–50%.

In the past, lands in southern Bangladesh were considered too risky for rice–wheat rotations because of the hot, short-season rabi (dry season) environment and, in some districts, the saline soil profile and limited water resources. Only recently have these southern lands been reconsidered for rabi-season production of crops such as wheat, maize and mungbean, using supplementary irrigation from limited surface water stored over from the wet kharif season. ACIAR funded a scoping study to assess the long-term technical and economic feasibility of rabi wheat production. The study provided justification for continued R&D investment in rabi-season crops on currently fallow lands in southern Bangladesh. Specifically, the study noted that water resources of southern Bangladesh needed to be characterised to determine their potential availability for irrigation, their distribution, and the types of water bodies and their quality. Salinity levels have the potential to affect wheat production, and tolerance of current and improved varieties to salinity needs further investigation. Further work is also needed to adapt agronomic practices, especially the timing and amounts of fertiliser and irrigation, in order to increase ecological sustainability, profitability and yield.