The BARI research centre in which we’re meeting
We’re planning rabi (dry) season field and station trials
for two regions in Bangladesh, Rajshahi and Rangpur, at the Rajshahi Wheat
Research Centre, which is shared/co-run by BARI (Bangladesh Agriculture
Research Institute) and BRRI (Bangladesh Rice Research Institute), two very
proud research institutes.
BARI trials to the left, BRRI trials to the right
The focus is on wheat research but on-station trials include
rice in the kharif (wet) season (wheat and maize are dry season cash crops) as
part of longer crop rotations. BARI is
running a long term (ten years so far) multi treatment (N levels, mulch, bed continuity)
on-station trial of rice-wheat-mungbean.
BARI ten year rice-wheat-mungbean trial
The research station is well kept – it’s the only place
apart from the park in Dhaka I’ve seen a rubbish bin – and orderly. Most of Bangladesh seems orderly, it’s just
that sometimes rubbish banks up, and there’s no one paying to contain or move
it on. Rubbish collection aside, many
jobs (e.g. lawn mowing at the research station, brick manufacture and
destruction more widely) are still done manually: labour is cheaper than machinery
and fuel, and employment probably reduces civic unrest.
An unusual sight!
Lawn mowing, Bangladeshi style
Now I'm back at the eponymous Nice Hotel, beginning a blog and
watching the one day cricket between South Africa and Australia while I wait
for the photos to upload. A Bangladeshi colleague
told me that Australia lost to Zimbabwe two days ago – the first Zimbabwe win
in 22 years!! And how nice to be working
in a country where people care about cricket J
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