Pariza a boon to poor farmers
Reaping of the newly developed early yielding paddy begins
Workers busy thrashing pariza, an early variety paddy developed by voluntary organisation RDRS (Bangladesh), on the premises of a house at Paranpur village in Niamotpur upazila of Naogaon district as farmers in a few northern districts started harvesting the off season variety in mid-August.Photo: STAR
Farmers have started reaping pariza, a newly developed paddy suitable for cultivation in between boro and aman crops, as different areas of northern region sees successful cultivation of the early yielding variety. The variety, developed by voluntary organization RDRS (Bangladesh), is seen as a boon for the poor and marginal farmers as well as agricultural labourers, especially in the northern districts. Through extensive research for three years, RDRS has evolved the new variety of paddy aiming at ensuring food security and drive out monga, a near-famine situation that prevails for a couple of months in the northern districts almost every year, reports our Gaibandha correspondent. This season 1456 farmers in Rangpur division have cultivated pariza on 500 acres of lands on experimental basis after RDRS introduced this technology in Rangpur division under a pilot project. Harvest of the crop started in mid-August," said Dr M G Neogi, head of agriculture, RDRS. "Farmers can cultivate pariza using natural fertiliser and rainwater and harvest it as an additional crop between the periods of boro and aman cultivation. Its harvest needs around 70 days after transplanting seedlings and the yield is three tonnes per hectare," he said. It needs investment of only Tk 12,000 per acre to cultivate pariza, whereas cultivation of boro and aman require Tk 20,000 and Tk 15,000 respectively, said Dr Neogi. "I have harvested 16 maunds of pariza paddy as an additional crop on .50 decimal plot. I had to spend Tk 3,500 for the purpose," said Paritosh Chandra Mohanta, a farmer of Satirjan village under Sunderganj upazila in Gaibandha. Because of introduction of local rice pariza, 1.8 million tonnes of additional rice can be produced on 0.6 million hectares of land under Rangpur division, Dr Neogi said, adding that if the new variety is cultivated throughout the country, it is possible to produce 9 million tonnes of additional rice on 3.5 million hectares of land. Presently Bangladesh faces yearly rice deficit of around 2.0 to 2.5 million tonnes. Our Thakurgaon Correspondent adds: Speakers at a function on the occasion of pariza paddy harvest at Gouripur village under Thakurgaon Sadar upazila have urged the farmers to cultivate pariza paddy in a large scale to change their socio-economic conditions. As the farmers of this region generally complete the harvest of boro paddy in April and start cultivation of T-aman paddy on the same land at the end of July, the land remains unused for two and a half months, they said at the programme organised by RDRS on Wednesday afternoon. By cultivating pariza paddy on fallow lands during the period, farmers can be benefited and help create work opportunities for the farm labourers, especially in five northern districts that see seasonal monga almost every year, they said. At the function presided over by Head of Thakurgaon Programme of RDRS Bangladesh Md Nazrul Goni, Project Coordinator Sadekul Islam explained the merits and methods of pariza cultivation. Deputy Director of Agriculture Extension Department (AED) Daliluddin, who attended the programme as chief guest, assured all of giving all kinds of administrative help to expand the pariza paddy cultivation at farmers' level in coming years. "I cultivated the paddy on 6-bigha of land and expect to get 12-14 maunds of paddy per bigha within about 85 days of planting," said Dinesh Chandra of Gouripur village.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.
Comments