This is one of 280 summaries describing key outputs from the projects
run by DFID's 10-year Renewable Natural Resources Research Strategy
Summary for Project title: R8269: Improvement of rainfed cropping
systems in the High Barind Tract of Bangladesh.
In Bangladesh, new crops are already tested on farms as well as on
research stations. Even so, farmers often don't get what they want or
need. Now, farmers themselves decide what works best for them on their
farms under normal farming conditions. Involving farmers in selecting
and testing improved varieties, known as 'participatory varietal
selection', has proven successful with chickpea in Bangladesh's High
Barind Tract. Here chickpea is becoming popular but yields are often
less than a quarter of what they could be. Farmers who tested and
adopted new varieties already harvest more grain. Plus, they can get an
extra crop from land that previously just lay fallow after the annual
rice crop. Involving farmers in selecting varieties has great potential,
so efforts need to be focused on making this approach more widely
accepted in Bangladesh.
The CD has the following information for this output: Description,
Validation, Current Situation, Current Promotion, Impacts On Poverty,
Environmental Impact, Annex. Attached PDF (12 pp.) taken from the CD.
PSP11, New technologies, new processes, new policies: tried-and-tested and ready-to-use results from DFID-funded research, Research Into Use Programme, Aylesford, Kent, UK, ISBN 978-0-9552595-6-2, p 16.