University of Chittagong (CU) has initiated a process to establish a greenhouse to develop climate-tolerant crop varieties.
The Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology Department of the university is constructing the greenhouse under a project with an estimated cost of Tk 60 million. Bangladesh Climate Change Trust Fund (BCCTF) is providing financial support for the project, reports BSS.
Officials said they have completed about 80 per cent of the project and it can be inaugurated within this year.
Project director Dr Laila Khaleda Ankhi, also an associate professor of the CU's Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology Department, said the population of Bangladesh is growing up day by day and at the same time, its arable land is dwindling.
She said the country's agriculture sector is being affected more due to flood, waterlogging, salinity and less rain by global climate change.
In these circumstances, Dr Laila said, once the project is implemented, it would be possible to innovate flood-, salinity- and drought-tolerant crop varieties applying modern biotechnologies through the installation of the greenhouse.
It would be possible to release the innovated crop varieties at farmers' level after examining those 2-3 times in a year at the greenhouse, she added.