BSS, Rangpur :
The farmers have completed harvest of indigenous parija rice as an additional Aus crop, cultivated with the assistance of RDRS Bangladesh, and got excellent yield rate in Rangpur division this season, concerned experts said.
With the assistance of the reputed NGO, 3,300 farmers cultivated parija rice on 3,300 bigha lands with one bigha each this season in all eight districts under Rangpur division after harvesting wheat, maize, tobacco and others crops during the last Rabi season.
Agriculture and Environment Coordinator of RDRS Bangladesh Mamunur Rashid said the farmers have already completed parija rice harvest by yesterday and excellent yield rate of 3.5 tonne paddy per hectare on an average this time.
“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 rain waters in May, June and July and reducing pressure on underground water reserves,” he added.
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 days to achieve the maximum yield under changed climate without hampering Aman farming, he narrated.
While narrating prospect of parija farming, Mamun said Bangladesh could become a rice-exporting nation if the indigenous rice was cultivated in 35-lakh hectares suitable land in the country to produce an additional 90-lakh tonnes paddy annually.
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.
The farmers have been cultivating the rice adopting new cropping pattern of ‘short duration Aman rice- mustard or potato-mungbean- short duration Aus (pariza) rice’, evolved by RDRS Bangladesh, enhancing crop intensification to ensure food security.
“After harvesting Rabi crops, farmers completed transplantation of parija seedling by May, completed harvest by mid-August and are now transplanting Aman seedling on the same land adopting the new cropping pattern to get four crops annually,” he said.
After harvesting their parija rice, farmers Ashraful Alam, Afzal Hossain, Majibar Rahman, Kafil Uddin, Abdul Matin, Abdul Hamid and many others told BSS that they got an average yield of about 3.5 tonnes paddy per hectare this time like last year.
