Officials and experts at separate crop cutting ceremonies have stressed for nationwide expanded cultivation of the off-season, indigenous and short duration parija rice to ensure food security amid adverse climate.
They were addressing two crop cutting ceremonies at separate farmers’ field days organised by RDRS Bangladesh at Gangadas and Atmaram villages under Belgachha upazila in Sadar upazila of Kurigram on Monday.
Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) of Kurigram Pratip Kumar Mandal attended the ceremonies and inaugurated harvest of the eco-friendly and short duration parija rice as additional Aus crop as the chief guest.
Sadar Upazila Agriculture Officer of Kurigram Mohammad Kamaruzzaman attended the ceremonies as the special guest while Senior Agriculture Officer of RDRS Bangladesh Rabiul Karim delivered welcome speech.
Assistant Environment Coordinator of RDRS Bangladesh for Kurigram Abdul Mannan, its Technical Officer (Agriculture) Manjurul Alam also addressed.
Farmers Esar Uddin, Majibar Rahman, Kafil Uddin and Abdul Hamid narrated their experiences in parija rice farming adopting the ‘early Aman rice-mustard-mug bean-parija’ cropping pattern, evolved by RDRS Bangladesh.
With President of Belgachha Samaj Unnayan Sangstha Nurul Islam in the chair, 200 male and female farmers, officials and employees of the DAE and RDRS Bangladesh, local public representatives, community leaders and journalists participated.
With RDRS Bangladesh assistance, 3,300 farmers have cultivated parija rice on 3,300 bigha lands with one bigha each this season adopting in Rangpur division after harvesting wheat, maize, tobacco and others crops during last Rabi season.
Assistant Environment Coordinator of RDRS Bangladesh Abdul Mannan said farmers have been cultivating parija rice on fallow lands during Aus season adopting the new cropping pattern that enables them in getting four crops annually from the same land.
