Impact of crop management research in Bangladesh: implications of CIMMYT's involvement since 1983

Abstract

This document attempts to quantify the impact of crop management research in Bangladesh since 1983, when CIMMYT scientists have been in bilateral positions. No attempt has been made to separate NARS and CIMMYT accomplishments in this paper. The governmental body for wheat research in Bangladesh is the Wheat Research Centre (WRC) , under the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute, all of which is under the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation, Flood Control and Water Resources. While wheat breeding has been on-going actively since 1970 by the WRC, wheat agronomic research was not a priority of the Centre until the arrival of CIMMYT Agronomist, Dr. Mengu GuIer in 1983. He was succeeded by Dr. David Saunders (1988 to 1991). This report is based on the published data written by all the scientists doing wheat research in Bangladesh. In reality, to make a good case for agronomic impact, one would require knowledge of the production recommendations made by the WRC since its inception, percentage of growers adapting such recommendations, and compare these with current recommended practices and adaptations. Unfortunately, such information has only been actively collected during the past two years