BSS, Rajshahi :
Brridhan-48, a drought tolerant paddy variety innovated by Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI), has gained popularity among farmers in the region including its vast barind tract for the last couple of years.
The newly innovated paddy variety has opened up a door of enormous prospects of food security along with mitigating the crises of irrigation water.
Besides, the variety has been giving satisfactory yield with scanty rainfall with limited irrigation during the Aush season in the area.
The success story has been revealed in a crop-cutting ceremony of the variety at Brahamanpara area under Nachole Upazila of Chapainawabgonj district on Monday last.
Agriculture Sustainable and Socioeconomic Development Organization (ASSEDO) organized the ceremony in association with its project titled “Promoting Food Security and Livelihoods of Marginalized People of Barind Tract (PFLMB)”.
Earlier, the project provided seeds of three drought tolerant varieties- Brridhan-48, Brridhan-57 and Binadhan-7- to some 300 marginal farmers of Nezampur and Nachole sadar and Kalma and Badhair of Tanore Upazila free of cost. Besides, 120 other destitute farmers received cost of fertilizer and other farming costs.
The initiative has been taken to increase agricultural production and income of marginalised and vulnerable families of the Barind tract by adapting climate adaptive sustainable agricultural technologies, diversifying income generating activities and skill development.
With Md Inayetullah, Chairman of Nachole Union Parishad, in the chair, Upazila Agriculture Officer Fouzia Ferdous addressed the ceremony as chief guest while ASSEDO Executive Director Agriculturist Rabiul Alam, UP Members Rustam Ali, Nasir Ahmed and Shyamoli Bala, PFLMB Project Director Mahbub Jaman Tapan and Technical Officer Jakir Hossain spoke as special guests.
Terming the development of the drought-tolerant varieties as the demand of time, Rabiul Alam expected that the varieties have started contributing a lot to ensure food security.
He, however, hoped that the varieties would bring a positive result for around 2 million hectares of land in the rain-fed drought prone area alongside playing a vital role in boosting rice yield in the days ahead.
Sharing their experience two of the participating farmers- Nasira Begum and Nadira Begum told the visiting scientists and extension officials that the Brridhan-48 variety has brought enormous benefit for them to cultivate rice in drought prone rainfed environment.
By virtue of early harvesting characteristics the variety supplement the farming of transplanted aman and various rabi crops like tomato, brinjal, mustard and vegetables as the region is conventionally famous for farming of those massively.
They stated that it is a short duration and high yielding paddy and takes 100 to 110 days from cultivation to harvest. Apart from this, taste and flavour of the variety is better and its market price is comparatively higher than many other varieties.
The declining rainfall coupled with the enhanced temperature due to adverse impact of the climate change has put the agriculture sector at a vulnerable condition.
So, promoting need-based varieties and technologies has become an urgent need to cope with the changed climatic condition to ensure food security of the country’s gradually rising population, they added.
