He was addressing a review meeting on the progress of the on-going projects for agriculture development at the agriculture ministry, says an official handout.

State Minister for Agriculture Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, Agriculture Secretary ASM Abdul Halim, Chief Executives of all organisations related to agriculture research and extension and representatives of various Ministries and Departments attended the meeting.

CDP is now being implemented in 310 upazilas to increase production of crops like tubers, pulses, oilseeds, maize and spices side by side with promoting their diversified use. Thus the nutritional status of the people will improve through research, extension and developing marketing facilities.

The meeting was told that the government is implementing 76 agriculture development projects this year involving Tk 546 crore.

The meeting, however, took stock of the new projects to improve the soil fertility, explore full potentiality of the country in orange production, develop export oriented integrated horticulture, production, preservation and distribution of seeds at farmers' level and extension of agro-engineering technology. These projects are at the different stages of appraisal.

Giving importance on recovering soil fertility, MK Anwar asked the agriculturists to quantify the extent of depletion of soil fertility and find out the main causes of depletion and probable remedies. He stressed on creating awareness among the farmers about the causes and educating them how to maintain soil fertility.

The minister said the government had undertaken special initiatives to increase the production and the supply of seeds of all crops to increase the agriculture production. "The private sector will be involved in this effort," he said and asked the seed certification agencies to strengthen and streamline their ability to ensure quality seeds to the farmers.

MK Anwar said, Bangladesh has a bright prospect in producing maize as it recorded the highest yield in Asia with 5.76 tons/hectare in the last season. He asked the extension officials to take steps to increase maize cultivation.