Monga-Prone Areas of Teesta Basin
Flood tolerant paddy to change farmers' lot
Officials of Bangladesh Rice Research Institute and NGO Concern Worldwide Bangladesh accompanied by farmers inspect a field of flood tolerant BRRI-51 paddy at Tapur Char in Dimla upazila of Nilphamari district a few days ago. Photo: STAR
Flood tolerant varieties of paddy developed by Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) bears bright prospect for farmers of char (newly emerged landmass) areas on the Teesta basin in Dimla upazila of Nilphamari district. Concern Worldwide Bangladesh launched motivation programmes and provided logistic support for its cultivation to the farmers of the poverty-stricken area that often sees serious crop damage due to frequent floods. On November 10, a team of scientists led by Dr Md Gous, chief scientific officer of BRRI at Rangpur, along with officials of Concern Worldwide Bangladesh visited the flood tolerant paddy fields at Tapur Char on Teesta basin in Dimla upazila and exchanged views with the farmers. and expressed satisfaction seeing their prospect. "Due to climatic change, devastating flood has become a regular phenomenon in the char areas where vast tracts of paddy fields are damaged every year, making people of Teesta chars regular victim of monga, a near-famine situation," Dr Gous told local elites, farmers and journalists. “To face the adverse effect of climate change, BRRI started efforts to evolve a flood tolerant variety in 2006. Finally, it succeeded to develop flood tolerant BRRI-Dhan-51 and BRRI-Dhan-52,” said Dr Gous. The two flood tolerant varieties are upgradation of aman paddy 'Swarna' and 'BR-11' respectively and they got recommendation from National Seed Board in February this year, said BRRI sources at Rangpur. Earlier farmers cultivated them on experimental basis. “Following good response from farmers of Teesta char areas we supplied seeds to them free of cost to cultivate the two flood tolerant varieties on large scale in the ongoing aman season. With technical assistance from BRRI we also arranged training for 54 farmers in Dimla upazila,” said Santonu Shekhar, project officer of NGO Concern Worldwide Bangladesh in Dimla upazila. Farmers of Tapur Char and Purbo Chhatu Nama Char cultivated newly evolved flood tolerant paddy on about seven hectares of lands, said Department of Agriculture Extension sources in Dimla upazila. It needs 9 kg seeds of any of the two varieties for making seedlings in seedbeds to cultivate in an acre (100 decimal) within 25 days, they said. “Both the varieties can remain undamaged under flood water even for 16 days at a stretch. And they can yield 4-4.5 tonnes of rice in a hectare with normal doze of fertiliser. Farmers do not have to depend on multinational companies for seeds as they can preserve it at home,” said Aftab Hossain, Dimla upazila agriculture officer. Several farmers including Abdus Salam, Rokanuzzaman, Nurul Haque, Abdur Rahman of Tapur Char and Chhatu Nama Char said they are no longer worried about adverse weather like flood, thanks to the new varieties of paddy. "lood tolerant paddy is showing farmers of my poverty stricken union light of hope," said Rabiul Islam Shahin, chairman of Tepa Kharibari union of Dimla upazila.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.
Comments