Combined efforts of farmers, rice scientists, extension personnel and Government of Bangladesh have yielded clean rice growth rate of 0.34 million ton (MT) year -1 during 2009-10 to 2013-14 in the country. In 2014-15, the country acquired a rice surplus of about 2 MT. However, maintaining the current surplus of rice in the coming decades is a great challenge. Authentic estimation of future rice requirement and future resource availability would guide to way forward. This paper presents rice vision for Bangladesh leading to 2050 and beyond. In this study, secondary data from different government-owned statistics and research institutes were collected, analyzed and synthesized to develop models and/or model parameters to generate outputs such as future population, rice production and rice requirement. Population of Bangladesh will reach 215.4 million in 2050, when 44.6 MT of clean rice will be required. With the pace of rice-production-increase in the last five years, production can reach 47.2 MT, having a surplus of 2.6 MT in 2050. The study sets 2.6 MT as the target for clean rice surplus every year leading to 2050 and beyond. Several hurdles, such as increasing population, decreasing resources and increasing climate vulnerability, can hinder achieving the target. Three major interventions-accelerating genetic gain, minimizing yield gap and curtailing adoption lag-are proposed to break the barriers to achieve the target. Major challenges to implement the interventions include shrinking net cropped area, decreasing availability of irrigation water and increasing pressure on soil fertility. Smart technology such as, location specific variety, profitable cropping sequences, innovative cultural management, and mechanization coupled with smart dissemination using multiple means would ease production barriers. We recommend a number of measures, such as, guaranteeing a minimum cropped area, accelerating the rate of genetic gain in varietal development and intensifying collaboration among the stakeholders to reduce adoption lag of newly released promising rice varieties, to achieve the rice vision of Bangladesh leading to 2050 and beyond.

Flooding is one of the major hazards of rice production for the rainfed lowland rice ecosystem, and tolerant cultivars are urgently needed to help protect farmers from submergence damage. A quick and efficient strategy was implemented to introgress SUB1, a major QTL for submergence tolerance, into a rainfed lowland mega variety BR11 of Bangladesh by only two backcrosses and one selfing generation. In marker-assisted backcrossing (MABC), one tightly-linked simple sequence repeat (SSR) and two gene-based markers, four flanking SSR and 116 background SSR markers were used for foreground, recombinant and background selection, respectively, in backcrosses between a SUB1 donor IR40931-33-1-3-2 and BR11. BR11-Sub1, identified in a BC 2 F 2 plant, possessed BR11 type SSR alleles on all fragments analyzed except the SUB1 QTL. The introgression size in BR11-Sub1 was 800 Kb indicating approximately 99.8% identity to BR11. BR11-Sub1 along with other introgression lines showed submergence tolerance similar to the tolerant parent. Yield, yield-component parameters and grain physico-chemical properties showed successful recovery of the BR11 traits in BR11-Sub1, with yield potential ranging from 5.2 to 5.6 t/ha, not significantly different from the recurrent parent mega variety BR11. Producing a large number (*1000) of backcross F 1 plants was considered essential to achieve recombination on both sides of the gene, limiting linkage drag with only two backcrosses. A large number of background markers ensured proper recovery of the recurrent parent genome in the BC 2 F 2 generation. The study demonstrates a rapid and highly precise strategy to introgress a major QTL by BC 2 F 2 generation into a modern rice variety using an unadapted donor. The variety can replace BR11 on more than 2 million of ha in Bangladesh and provide major increases in rice production.

ObjectiveThe purpose of this paper is to perform a systematic review and meta-analysis in order to summarise the prevalence of diabetes and pre-diabetes and their associated risk factors in Bangladesh.DesignSystematic review and meta-analysis.ParticipantsGeneral population of Bangladesh.Data sourcesPubMed, Medline, Embase, Bangladesh Journals Online, Science Direct, Scopus, Cochrane Library and Web of Science were used to search for studies, published between 1st of January 1995 and 31st of August 2019, on the prevalence of diabetes and pre-diabetes and their associated risk factors in Bangladesh. Only articles published in the English language articles were considered. Two authors independently selected studies. The quality of the articles was also assessed.ResultsOut of 996 potentially relevant studies, 26 population-based studies, which together involved a total of 80 775 individuals, were included in the meta-analysis. The pooled prevalence of diabetes in the general population was 7.8% (95% CI: 6.4–9.3). In a sample of 56 452 individuals, the pooled prevalence of pre-diabetes was 10.1% (95% CI: 6.7–14.0; 17 studies). The univariable meta-regression analyses showed that the prevalence of diabetes is associated with the factors: the year of study, age of patients and presence of hypertension. The prevalence of diabetes was significantly higher in urban areas compared with rural areas, while there was no significant gender difference.ConclusionsThis meta-analysis suggests a relatively high prevalence of pre-diabetes and diabetes in Bangladesh, with a significant difference between rural and urban areas. The main factors of diabetes include urbanisation, increasing age, hypertension and time period. Further research is needed to identify strategies for early detecting, prevention and treatment of people with diabetes in the population.PROSPERO registration numberCRD42019148205.

Built on deep-rooted political and cultural heritage, ‘rice security’ is the foundation of ‘food security’ in Bangladesh. The country has been in production-surplus of rice in the current decade feeding over 165 million people. This on-going ‘selfsufficiency momentum’ would require to maintain to meet increased demand from growing future population. On developmental side, Bangladesh is placed among the three of the world’s fastest growing economies in the years through to 2050. Rice sector would need to match with the pace of this growth. In addition, agriculture sector, that includes rice, is to double the productivity as the government commits to meet the SDG goal 2.3.1. This study addresses those issues through scoping increased rice production and productivity in Bangladesh, developing a plan of work (POW) on translating the scope and designing implementation plans and actions, incorporating efficiency, resilience, stability and sustainability issues, to achieve the POW. The study has used brainstorming, and rigorous analysis to achieve the objectives. The productivity has been explained in terms of yield- and labour-productivity. The developed three-winged ‘doubling rice productivity (DRP)’ framework directs yield enhancement and production accumulation in unexplored spaces (Wing-1); increased adoption of mechanization to impact on labour productivity (Wing-2), and improvements in nutritional quality and rice-based product diversity, and stabilizing the farmgate price (Wing-3). Analyses show, from the baseline figure of 35.29 MT in 2015, rice production in the country can be raised to 46.90 MT in 2030, 54.09 MT in 2040 and 60.85 MT in 2050 with combined contributions of three pillars – yield improvements by enhanced varietal potential (Pillar 1), reduction in existing yield gap (Pillar 2) and production increase by exploring unexplored spaces for rice (Pillar 3) of Wing-1 of the DRP. This production will produce a surplus of 6.50, 10.29 and 13.65 MT in 2030, 2040 and 2050, respectively, over the production target (40.40, 43.80 and 47.20 MT in 2030 and 2050, respectively). Results further reveal that through scale-appropriate mechanization backed up by estimated fair price, labour productivity in rice will be doubled by 2029, meeting the SDG 2.3.1. Good number of released varieties have been identified to have specific nutritional trait, and value adding quality. We have emphasized on much needed actions on demand-driven research for varietal development and field-adoptable management, mechanization for transplanting and harvesting operations, accommodation of rice in unexplored spaces, farmer-based speedy seed multiplication and dissemination system, establishment of commission for agricultural costs and prices, input buffer stock terminals for managing production risk, long-term storage and export of surplus production, and research-publicity-market development for rice-based products through public-private partnership. It is concluded that efficiency, resilience and sustainability around the three wings of DRP in the rice production systems to be ensured to achieve the rice production, productivity and labour use estimates. Bangladesh Rice J. 24 (2): 1-47, 2021

Green and sustainable software development has emerged in recent years, and vendors are constantly striving to develop software that has a less hazardous impact on the environment, economy, and human beings. However, developing green software in the context of software multisourcing is not a risk-free activity, and vendors are exposed to several challenges. The authors have conducted both a systematic literature review and an industrial survey to identify the challenges faced by multisourcing vendors in the development of green and sustainable software. The final publication sample for the systematic literature review is composed of 54 research papers. Similarly, the final sample of the industrial survey is composed of 108 relevant experts.The authors have identified a list of 14 challenges. Of these challenges/risk factors, 8 have been tagged as critical risk factors. These critical risk factors are "lack of green RE practices," "high power consumption," "high carbon emission throughout the software development," "poor software design (architectural, logical, physical, and user interface)," "lack of ICTs for coordination and communication," "high resource requirements," "lack of coding standards," and "lack of green software development knowledge." KEYWORDS challenges/risk factors, green and sustainable software, green software development, industrial survey, software multisourcing, systematic literature review, vendors