You are here

Despite climate extremes, Bangladesh improves harvests to feed a growing population

Melissa Evans, Sinead Harvey

With the help of plant breeding, rice production in Bangladesh has tripled since the 1970s. (Photo: IAEA)

Bangladesh — a country highly vulnerable to floods, cyclones, storms and drought due to the climate crisis — faces major challenges in its agricultural sector. Over one million hectares of land in coastal areas are unfit for cultivation, due to saline soil conditions and soil degradation.

With the goal of adapting food production to climate change, the IAEA has been collaborating with Bangladesh to develop high quality, high yield crop varieties resistant to extreme conditions.

Through nuclear science and technology, the IAEA is able to support Bangladesh to improve its crop yields and help ensure food security.
Deng Ge, Director, Division for Asia and the Pacific, Department of Technical Cooperation, IAEA

Developing new rice varieties to adapt to climate change

Rice is a particularly important crop in Bangladesh, but extreme weather events or outbreaks of plant disease can ruin entire harvests. Farmers urgently need new crop varieties that can be grown despite extreme conditions.

Since 1971, the IAEA and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), through the Joint FAO/IAEA Centre of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture, have been working with Bangladesh to address agricultural challenges through training courses, fellowships, expert visits and the provision of equipment to enhance laboratory capabilities. In 2023, the IAEA and the FAO launched the Atoms4Food initiative to amplify their joint work on agriculture and help ensure food security.

In collaboration with the IAEA, the Bangladesh Institute of Nuclear Agriculture (BINA) has successfully produced 85 crop varieties. One of these is Binadhan-14, an improved rice variety developed using nuclear technology in just 4 years — less than half the time of a conventional plant breeding process, which typically takes 8–12 years.

The new rice variety can withstand higher temperatures and has a shorter growth period. (Photo: IAEA)

 

The new rice variety can withstand higher temperatures and has a shorter growth period of 110–120 days instead of the usual 140–150 days. This creates an extended window for growing other crops and vegetables. The new variety produces nearly 7 tonnes of rice per hectare — nearly 75 per cent more than the global average yield.

BINA has also used plant mutation breeding to develop saline-tolerant rice varieties, providing hope for coastal farmers affected by saline soil conditions and soil degradation. Two saline-tolerant varieties are already available, and 40–50 per cent of previously fallow land can now be cultivated, improving food security and farmer income.

“The IAEA is working throughout Asia and the Pacific to support countries in applying nuclear based solutions to solve problems arising from changing climatic conditions. Through nuclear science and technology, the IAEA is able to support Bangladesh to improve its crop yields and help ensure food security,” says Deng Ge, Director of the Division for Asia and the Pacific at the IAEA’s Department of Technical Cooperation.

Plant mutation breeding is a nuclear technique in which plant seeds, cuttings or leaves are exposed to radiation such as gamma rays, speeding up the natural process of crop mutation. The irradiated material is then cultivated until it grows into a plantlet. The plants are multiplied and examined for favourable traits.

The new varieties help Bangladesh feed its 165 million people, almost a third of whom are food insecure. They have also enabled the country to maintain its status as the world’s fourth largest producer and consumer of rice.

With the goal of adapting food production to climate change, the IAEA has been collaborating with Bangladesh to develop high quality, high yield crop varieties resistant to extreme conditions. (Photo: AdobeStock)

“Mutation breeding is a great hope for farmers in Bangladesh. These new pulse varieties ensure nutritional security, income and livelihood,” says Abdus Salam, from Lalpure, Natore, in Bangladesh.

The IAEA promotes nuclear based solutions to protect and restore the in response to climate-related weather events and disasters through mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions and adaptation to, and monitoring of, the adverse consequences of climate change. This includes reducing greenhouse gas emissions, adapting to climate change impacts and monitoring its adverse effects.

 

September, 2024
Vol. 65-2

Stay in touch

Newsletter