The research institutes under the National Agricultural Research System (NARS) have achieved considerable success in some particular areas, contributing towards increasing agricultural productivity in the country.

Talking to BSS. Executive Chairman of Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC) Dr Z Karim said some of the research outputs had already went to farmers and some others were under trial.

He said adaptation of rice varieties and other technologies developed by Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) helped increase total rice production from 9.93 million tons in 1972-73 to 18.24 million tons in 1992-93 and currently the country is near self-sufficient in rice producUon.

He said BRRI had developed 31 modern varieties of rice, some of which are widely adopted like BRU, BR3, and BR14. These modern varieties in Bangladesh contributes 68 per cent of the national rice production and occupies 48 per cent of the rice area.

He pointed out that according to an independent study by International donor agency, each Taka invested in BRRI gave a net return of Taka 38.

BARC now co ordinates the research activities of BRRI, Bangladesh Jute Research institute (BJRI), Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI), Bangladesh Institute Of Nuclear Agriculture (BINA). Bangladesh Sugarcane Research Institute

(BSRI), Bangladesh Livestock Research Institute (BLRI). Fisheries Research Institute (FRI). Bangladesh Tea Research Institute (BTRI), Bangladesh Forest Research Institute (BFRI), and Soil Resources Development Institute (SRDI).

Dr Karim said 70 per cent of the jute cultivated area is now covered by high yielding superior quality lossa varieties developed by Jute Research Institute and the coverage was only 20 per cent before the institute had released 24 varieties of jute to suit different agro-ecological conditions of the country.

Referring to technological research, he said BJRI had developed blankets, novotex fabrics, novocel fine yearn, ego-jute/geo-textlle, dying, finishing and fire proofing of Jute prod ucts.

He said BARI as the biggest multicrop research institute covers over 100 crops and so Tar released 17 varieties of wheat. 15 . varieties of potatoes. 23 varieties of oil seeds, 12 varieties of pulses, four varieties of maize. 12 varieties of spices and fruits including perennial ones.

It also developed summer tomato, summer cauliflower, vegetable soybean, edible podden bean, asparagus, cucurbits and virus-free okra, and different management packages.

Dr Karim said BINA had developed two high yielding varieties of rice, a mutant variety of jute, two high yielding mustard variety, a mutant variety of tomato, two varieties of mungbean, one blackgram, two chickpea varieties and biofertilizer for lentil, groundnut, chickpea, mungbean and cowpea.