Desk Report: Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) has inaugurated the country’s first organic pesticide laboratory in the Department of Entomology. BARI Director General Dr. Debashish Sarkar inaugurated the laboratory as the chief guest on Wednesday.
This laboratory has been set up under the project titled ‘Innovation and expansion of organic pesticides based technology in the management of insects and diseases of vegetables, fruits and betel crops in Bangladesh’. In this laboratory, research activities will be conducted to prevent misuse of chemical pesticides in crops and to develop new organic pesticide based technologies.
After the inauguration of the laboratory, the concluding workshop of the project titled ‘Innovation and expansion of organic pesticides based technology in the management of insects and diseases of vegetables, fruits and betel nuts in Bangladesh’ was held in the seminar room of the entomology department.
Bari Director General Dr. Debashish Sarkar was present as the chief guest and inaugurated the workshop. Director (Training and Communication) Dr. Ferdausi Islam presided over the workshop as special guests. Director of Plant Conservation Wing of Agriculture Extension Department Agronomist Md Emdad Hossain Sekh, Bari Director (Service and Supply) Dr. Md Kamrul Hasan, Director (Research) ) Dr. Md Tariqul Islam and Bari’s former Director (Planning and Evaluation Wing) Syed Nurul Alam. Chief Scientific Officer of Entomology Department of Bari Akhtaruzzaman Sarkar gave welcome speech and presented overall activities of Bari part of the project Nirmal Kumar Dutta, Chief Scientific Officer of Entomology Department of Bari and Project Director. DAE Additional Deputy Director and Deputy Project Director Karima Akhtar presented the activities of the Directorate of Agricultural Extension (DAE) part of the project. Scientists from different departments and centers of Bari, extension workers, representatives of various biopesticide manufacturing companies and farmer representatives participated in the day-long workshop.
It was informed in the workshop that the activities of this project running from 2018 to June 2022 were conducted in 21 upazilas of 14 districts of the country. 30 organic pesticide based technologies have been developed under this project. Simultaneously, 7 crop pests were discovered, 26 new biopesticides were registered and 1 biopesticides laboratory was set up.
In the speech of the chief guest, Director General of Bari Debashish Sarkar said that 10-18% of the total crop is being wasted in the production stage due to various reasons including insect attack in our country. At the same time, due to lack of proper knowledge of farmers, widespread and excessive use of chemical pesticides in crops, which is a deadly threat to the health of the people of our country. Through this project, various activities have been conducted including creating awareness among people to prevent the misuse of chemical pesticides in crops and increase the use of organic pesticides. I hope, through the laboratory which was inaugurated today, more new technologies based on organic pesticides will be invented which will contribute significantly to safe food production in the country.
