GAIBANDHA, Mar 14: A day-long knowledge-sharing workshop on nutritious OFSP (Orange Fleshed Sweet Potato) was held at the hallroom of SKS Inn at Radhakrishnapur under Sadar upazila here on Sunday.
CIP Bangladesh and Brac arranged the workshop under SUSTAIN project funded by UKAid in collaboration with the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) and Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute (BARI).
Deputy Commissioner (DC) M. Abdus Samad addressed the workshop as chief guest and Superintendent of Police M. Ashraful Islam, Civil Surgeon Dr. Nirmalendu Chowdhury and Deputy Director of DAE AKM Ruhul Amin were present as special guests.
Director of Tuber Crops Research Centre of BARI in Gazipur Dr. Jahangir Hossain chaired the programme.
It was also addressed, among others, by District Nutrition Support Officer of unicef M. Quamruzzaman, District Market Investigator M. Moazzem Hossain, OFSP vine cultivator Raihan Ferdous Palash, cultivator Bilkis Akter, community nutrition scholar Jesika Akter and journalist Sarker M. Shahiduzzaman.
The speakers in their speeches unequivocally underscored the need for farming OFSP in larger scale to change the socio-economic condition of the growers and meet up the nutritional demand in the country to build a healthy nation.
Earlier, a welcome speech was delivered by Country Manager of CIP Bangladesh Mir Asgar Ali. He said about 380 bighas of land owned by 2,500 farmers of Sadar and Fulchhari upazilas have been brought under OFSP farming this year for the first time.
Grodon Prain and Dr. Simon Heck from CIP Peru, Sector Leader of CIP Bangladesh Dr. EHM Shofiur Rahman and Programme Head of brac Shudhir Chandra Nath also presented their keynote papers on OFSP through multimedia projector.