Bangladesh Blog #2 Fertilizer Deep Placement by Katy Mulligan

This briquette machine was used to convert prilled urea to urea briquettes that are sold.

My first stop after arriving to Dhaka was Jessore. Jessore is located close to the Indian border. I traveled with Sonia, my translator and cultural educator, from the International Fertilizer Development Center to interview 14 farmers and extension agents about their use of an agricultural technology called Fertilizer Deep Placement (FDP). FDP consists of placing urea briquettes underneath the soil once or twice during the growing season instead of broadcasting fertilizer. The placement underneath the soil decreases volatilization and provides the plants with nutrients at critical growth stages.

This is a bag of urea briquettes that farmers place underneath the soil by hand or with a small push tool.

We stayed in Jessore and traveled to surrounding rural communities during the day to interview farmers. Our interviews consisted of questions related to how women use FDP, their access to the urea briquettes, and how the use of FDP would increase their empowerment or income. The point of these interviews was to understand if FDP is a gender sensitive technology, meaning that women have the same access to it as men, it has the potential to increase household nutrition, and it does not negatively shift labor roles.

Of the farmers that I interviewed, most of them agreed that the FDP technology was beneficial and increased their harvests and income. Many women seemed to have access to the briquettes which indicates this technology is accessible by both men and women.

These men were transplanting rice. This is an example of where the briquettes could be applied.