Harvest of the eco-friendly, off-season and short duration indigenous parija rice continues in full swing everywhere in Rangpur division as an additional Aus crop increasing rice output to attain food security.
Cultivation of parija rice adopting the ‘early Aman rice-mustard-mug bean-parija’ cropping pattern, evolved by RDRS Bangladesh, has already become popular among the framers, Head of Programme Coordination of the NGO Monjusree Saha said.
With RDRS Bangladesh assistance, 3,300 farmers have cultivated parija rice on 3,300 bigha lands with one bigha each this season adopting the new cropping pattern in the division after harvesting wheat, maize, tobacco and others crops during last Rabi season.
The NGO has distributed 16,500 kg parija seeds among the farmers for its expanded cultivation in Rangpur, Gaibandha, Nilphamari, Thakurgaon, Lalmonirhat, Kurigram, Dinajpur and Panchagarh in the division this season.
Agriculture and Environment Coordinator of the NGO Mamunur Rashid said farmers have been cultivating parija rice on fallow lands during Aus season adopting the cropping pattern that enables them in getting four crops annually from the same land.
“Farming of the eco-friendly parija rice requires no supplementary irrigation as its plants grow superbly using seasonal rainfalls ensuring best use of the unused rainwater in May, June and July reducing pressure on underground water reserves,” he added.
He said the parija seeds can be sowed using direct seeded rice method to harvest in 90 days or transplanted 20-day old seedlings to harvest in 75-80 days to achieve maximum yield under changed climate without hampering Aman farming on the same land.
“After harvesting Rabi crops, farmers complete transplantation of parija seedlings by May to harvest the crop by mid-August without hampering Aman cultivation adopting the new cropping pattern to get four crops annually,” he said.
Under the assistances of the NGO, 430 farmers have cultivated the crop on 430 bigha lands in Rangpur, 290 farmers in 290 bigha lands each in Dinajpur and Panchagarh, 520 farmers each on 520 bigha lands in Nilphamari and Thakurgaon districts this season.
Besides, 310 farmers have cultivated parija rice on 310 bigha lands in Gaibandha, 510 farmers on 510 bigha lands in Lalmonirhat and 430 farmers have cultivated the crop on 430 bigha lands in Kurigram this season.
After harvesting parija rice, farmers Isahaque Ali, Ashraful Alam, Afzal Hossain, Abdus Salam, Abdul Hamid and many others told BSS that they have got an average yield of 3.5 tonnes parija paddy per hectare as an additional Aus crop this time.
