This was stated by a delegation of CIMMYT led by its Director Dr Rodomiro Ortiz when it called on the Agriculture Minister MK Anwar at his office here yesterday.

The CIMMYT, headquartered in Mexico, has been working with the Bangladesh Agriculture Research Council and Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute since 1983 to develop and extend high yielding varieties of wheat and maize in the country.

The organisations also have collaborative efforts for germplasm exchange, research on arsenic contamination and food quality, agro-food nutrition programmes and knowledge sharing.

Welcoming the initiatives, MK Anwar said, against the backdrop of the growing local demand of maize and wheat, the country is progressing steadily in maize production. It was 0.24 million tons in 2003-04 and reached about 0.35 million tons in 2004-05.

Bangladesh has achieved tremendous progress in maize production in the last couple of years with an average yield of 5.7 tons per hectare against the global average of 4.2 tons and 3.8 tons in India, 1.9 tons in Pakistan and 1.8 tons in Nepal mainly because of irrigation and 100% hybrid seed cultivation.

In the neighbouring countries, a major portion of land is being cultivated in rain-fed condition and with local varieties. BADC has started hybrid maize seed production.

This year they are cultivating hybrid seed on 4 hectares of land on trial basis and next year on 60 hectares with a target of 120 tons of seed production against the country's present maize seed demand of about 1500 tons. Some private seed producers with the help of CIMMYT have also started maize seed production, the meeting was told.