Establishment of CA Park
Conservation agriculture (CA) is a crop production system for attaining sustainable food production through increased crop productivity and soil health using modern machineries and improved production technologies. Conservation agriculture is a magical weapon to increase soil organic carbon which is declining due to extensive tillage, increased intensive cropping pattern and use of high yielding varieties. Benefits of CA could be visible in a field where CA is being practiced in whole cropping pattern over the years. Though CA is working world-wide but very limited work has been done in Bangladesh. Therefore, little chance of viewing CA activities and gain knowledge by the farmers, students, researchers and policy makers. Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) established a conservation agriculture park (CA Park) in Gazipur (23059¢05.0²N 90024¢50.9²E) during 2020-21 with the cooperation of ASMIH-Bangladesh project to evaluate the long-term effect of CA on crop yield and soil properties for different cropping system. The whole area was leveled and prepared by earth filling in some parts for long term trial. A submersible solar pump with 4020 Wp solar panel was installed for green energy irrigation in the CA Park. A field lab cum pump house has also built along with the solar pump system. The buried pipe irrigation system with eight risers were established for efficient water management in the CA experiments. The whole park was divided into four sections to conduct different CA experiments through development of land and levelling. The southern part is high land and for conducting tillage and residue effect on crop productivity, soil health and profitability in maize- cover crop-rice cropping pattern. The middle part is medium land for testing and validation of different CA machinery. Especially newly developed four-wheel tractor operated seeder will be tested here. Third section is medium low land for conducting tillage and residue effect on crop productivity, soil health and profitability in mungbean - cover crop - rice cropping pattern and in northern part is low land for conducting unpuddled rice planting for improve soil health and profitability in long term rice-rice-rice cropping pattern (with rice residue management).
The Park is working as a crop museum where different pattern-based experiments will be conducted along with a field lab. After 3-4 years, this park will be creating a scope to see the CA impacts for farmers, students, interested learners to know about how crop production along with soil fertility successfully increased with low input, time and energy compare to traditional crop production system. This CA park will assist to gain knowledge and implication of that knowledge by the stakeholders for sustainable crop production and to ensure food and nutrition security of the country.