Agri Secy visits CFT of late blight resistant potato

National Desk :

Secretary Wahida Akter of Ministry of Agriculture visited BARI’s Biotechnology Division’s 3R-gene late blight resistant potato ‘Confined Field Trial (CFT)’ sites at Gazipur on Thursday.
Dr. Shaikh Mohammad Bokhtiar, Executive Chairman, BARC; Dr. Debasish Sarker, Director General, BARI; Rehana Yasmin, Joint Secretary, Research Wing, MoA; Dr. Sabina Yeasmin, Joint Secretary, Research Branch, MoA; Dr. Tariqul Islam, Director (T&C), BARI; Dr. Ferdouse Islam, Director(SS), BARI; Dr. Abdullah Yousuf Akhond, Director(Research), BARI and Senior Scientists of BARI were also present there.
The secretary and high officials were delighted to see the performance of the 3R-gene potato events against late blight disease, the most devastating disease of potatoes worldwide. The field trial is being conducted in collaboration with Michigan State University and Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute with the help of USAID-funded ‘Feed the Future Global Biotech Potato Partnership’ project. The ultimate goal of this project is to develop late blight-resistant potato varieties for smallholder farmers in Bangladesh.