The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has urged the government to turn growing evidence on agricultural methane reduction into policies, programs and investments to promote climate-resilient and low-emission agriculture in Bangladesh.
The call came at a policy dialogue titled “Accelerating Methane Reduction for Climate Resilience and Low-Emission Agriculture in Bangladesh”, organized by IFAD at a city hotel on Wednesday.
Government officials, researchers, development partners, international financial institutions, civil society representatives, private-sector stakeholders and farmers’ representatives attended the event.
They discussed how emerging technologies and field-level evidence could be incorporated into national agricultural planning and investment.
Mostafa Kamal, additional secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture and chief guest at the event, stressed the importance of using knowledge and evidence to strengthen agricultural interventions.
“IFAD is our trusted, long-standing partner. Beyond its investments, IFAD brings a global and tested knowledge base in agriculture and agroecology. We need to draw on this knowledge and translate it into interventions that provide a solid foundation for the development of our country,” he said.
He also highlighted the link between land, livelihoods and ecosystems, saying agricultural interventions must maintain ecological balance while addressing farmers’ practical needs.
Valantine Achancho, IFAD country director for Bangladesh, said the country needs to move beyond isolated pilot projects and adopt a coordinated national approach.
“Government must lead, partners must coordinate around that leadership. Our collective objective should be one coherent national pathway, not a collection of disconnected pilots,” he said.
“The evidence is growing. The technologies are increasingly available. The partners are present. What is needed now is alignment, policy commitment and investment on a scale under the leadership of the government,” he added.
Participants discussed various approaches to reducing agricultural methane emissions, including alternate wetting and drying, urea deep placement, smart irrigation, digital agriculture and livestock methane reduction.
They also discussed the potential of climate finance and carbon markets and the need for credible measurement, reporting and verification systems to assess emission reductions.
Technical sessions focused on linking field-level evidence with national policies, farmer incentives, agricultural extension services and investment mechanisms.
A panel featuring representatives from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the Department of Environment, the Department of Agricultural Extension, Bangladesh Agricultural University and the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute discussed development-partner coordination and implementation of Bangladesh’s Nationally Determined Contribution.
The panel also discussed extension requirements, emissions measurement and verification, and the links between methane reduction and food security.
Participants later joined four thematic breakout sessions on methane-reduction technologies; climate finance and carbon markets; digital agriculture and IoT-enabled irrigation; and extension models for climate-smart agriculture.
The dialogue builds on IFAD’s Reducing Agricultural Methane Program (RAMP), which has supported technical capacity building, applied research, policy engagement and field demonstrations in Bangladesh.
As the current phase of the program comes to an end, IFAD stressed the need to turn its findings into concrete policy and investment actions.
It called for a government-led roadmap, stronger agricultural delivery systems, credible mechanisms to measure and verify emission reductions, clear investment pathways and better coordination among relevant institutions.
The discussions also highlighted the need to ensure that methane-reduction measures support not only Bangladesh’s climate commitments but also food security, farmer resilience and the long-term sustainability of the agricultural sector.
