A PARTNER Congress was held in Nageshwari Upazila of Kurigram on Monday (October 12), focusing on increasing agricultural production, ensuring nutrition security, creating rural entrepreneurs and improving farmers’ socioeconomic conditions through technology-based farming.
Organised by the Upazila Agriculture Extension Department, the event took place at the upazila auditorium under the PARTNER programme, titled Programme on Agricultural and Rural Transformation for Nutrition, Entrepreneurship and Resilience in Bangladesh.
Upazila Nirbahi Officer Muhammad Alauddin chaired the event. Abul Fattah, deputy director of the Department of Agricultural Extension in Kurigram, attended as the chief guest. Upazila Agriculture Officer Shahriar Hossain delivered the welcome address.
Special guests included Ashok Kumar Roy, senior monitoring officer for the Rangpur region under the PARTNER project; Golam Rasul Raza, convener of the upazila BNP; Member Secretary Mokhlesur Rahman; Upazila Jamaat Ameer Abdul Mannan; Nageshwari Press Club President Omar Faruk; Press Club Nageshwari President Rafiqul Islam; and Babul Zaman, joint convener of the Kurigram Journalists Union, among others.
Speakers emphasised the need to modernise agriculture, expand the use of improved farming technologies and adopt good agricultural practices to increase production. They also stressed raising farmers’ awareness and skills to improve the quality of agricultural products, ensure safe food supplies and strengthen nutrition security.
They highlighted the importance of creating agriculture-based entrepreneurs to expand rural employment opportunities and improve farmers’ socioeconomic conditions.
Organisers said the PARTNER programme aims to disseminate agricultural information among marginal farmers, expand access to improved crop varieties and technologies, support the marketing of agricultural products and develop sustainable agricultural production systems.
The programme seeks to increase agricultural productivity, improve food quality and ensure nutrition security, they added.
