Farmers can raise their income by up to 36 per cent through using validated weather forecasts, a government study revealed on Monday.
The research said their income could be increased by avoiding loss from natural disasters, reducing input costs, and raising yield notably through integrating their farming with weather forecasts.
The findings of the study titled 'Validating forecast-based rice crop management research findings through farmers' participation in 2019-20 and 2020-21 Boro season' were disclosed at an online workshop on Integrated Rice Advisory Systems (IRAS), organised by the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) Agromet and Crop Modeling Lab.
The study was conducted at different locations in Habiganj, Gazipur, Rajshahi, Barisal and Rangpur districts during the Boro season.
Senior Scientific Officer of BRRI Niaz Md Farhat Rahman presented a paper on the occasion. It said all plans and policies, like Bangladesh Delta Plan 2100, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030, National Agricultural Policy 2018 and National Agricultural Extension Policy 2020, have given utmost priority to use of appropriate technology and crop production knowledge to limit the damage caused by natural disasters.
The study found the farmers, who used weather forecast-based advisory services (WFBAS), could minimise their rice cultivation cost by almost 15 per cent than that of conventional farmers' practice (FP).
In this way, the farmers using WFBAS were able to raise their production by 10 per cent and net income by on an average 36 per cent in the research areas in 2019-20 Boro season than that of FPs.
The research also found that with an investment of Tk 1.0 for WFBAS, the return could be Tk 51 to Tk 73.
But only 5.0 per cent of the country's rice farmers so far could avail WFBAS, noted the report.
BRRI Director General Dr Md Shahjahan Kabir said 60 per cent of paddy yield depends on proper management.
Farmers would be benefitted, if the forecast and advice on paddy cultivation and meteorology - prepared by Agromet Lab - are disseminated through field-level officials of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), he opined.
Agromet Modeling and Lab was established in 2016, emphasising climate sustainable agricultural technologies and their expansion at farmers' level.
The project has created a web-based automated platform - IRAS - to prepare and disseminate weather forecasting on rice production management and advisory services along with processing, reviewing and verification of forecast data for researchers, extension officers and farmers, he added.
Additional Secretary of Ministry of Agriculture Kamala Ranjan Das said to enhance productivity and profit from rice yield, a massive and efficient programme across the country would be taken for wider demonstration, refinement, and dissemination of weather forecast-based advisory service in an integrated way.
Organisers said BRRI's weekly advisory services would be delivered to farmers through coordination among BRRI, Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD) and DAE, using IRAS system.
In addition, the plan should incorporate text and voice SMS into IRAS system, so that the advisory services could be delivered directly to the farmers, they added.
Director of BMD Azizur Rahman, Consultant of CIMMYT-Bangladesh Dr Moin Us Salam, Director of Agromet Information System Development Project of DAE Shah Kamal Khan, meteorologist S M Kamrul Hasan, and RIMES Bangladesh country program leader Raihanul Haque Khan, also spoke, among others.
