UCB pens MoUs with BARI, BAU

United Commercial Bank PLC (UCB) recently signed two different memoranda of understanding (MoU) with the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) and the Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU).

ATM Tahmiduzzaman, deputy managing director of the bank, Ahmed Khairul Hasan, professor of the department of agronomy at BAU, and Nirmal Kumar Dutta, chief scientific officer and head, entomology division at BARI, inked the MoUs at the bank's corporate office in Dhaka recently, read a press release.

The MoUs were signed for two different projects, titled "Upscaling of BARI developed bio-rational-based insect pest management technologies for safe vegetable production" with BARI, and "Evaluation of sugarcane-based intercropping and stress-tolerant rice varieties in the saline-prone Sandwip Island of Bangladesh" with the BAU.

The core objectives of these research projects are to increase crop productivity through climate-resilient sugarcane-based intercropping, to increase rice productivity by introducing salt-tolerant rice cultivation and adopting salinity stress ameliorative agronomic measures, and to train farmers on the development and adoption of climate-resilient crop production practices in the Sandwip island.

Among others, Rezaul Karim Siddique, anchor of Mati O Manus at Bangladesh Television, Abul Kalam Azad, executive vice-president and head of brand marketing and corporate affairs division of UCB, Mohsinur Rahman, head of SME banking, and AKM Ziaur Rahman, principle scientific officer of BARI, were present.