DHAKA: Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury on Sunday asked the development partners not to make Bangladeshi farmers guinea pig.

She urged them to train the farmers on the basic process so that they are benefited.

Matia Chowdhury made the request while speaking at the opening session of a workshop on mixed urea fertilizer at Khamarbari in the capital, sponsored by the USAID.

The minister said the briquettes urea was first introduced around 15 years back which is now being used only in 6 per cent of farm lands despite having utility.  

She expressed her frustration over its poor use.

The minister said over 100 private organizations were tasked with production and distribution of briquettes urea as the development partners had blamed the government organizations being corruption.

Excepting a few 8 to 10 organizations, the rest were found cheat, she said adding that the organizations had supplied low quality fertilizers, took money from the farmer and fled.      

The workshop was told that Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council, Agriculture Extension Directorate , Bangladesh Rice Research Institute and International Fertilizer Development Center with the financial assistance of USAID will produce a mix of briquettes urea, which will be more effective than briquettes.

Executive Chairman of BARC Dr. Oais Kabir chaired the workshop while USAID Mission Director-in-charge Dennis Sharma and Representative of International Fertilizer Development Center Israt Jahan also spoke.  

BDST: 2140 HRS, JULY 25, 2010