A Correspondent :
A field day has observed at Khurushkul Union Parishad, Sadar Upazila under Cox’s Bazar district on Zinc enrich Rice BRRI dhan74 under Delivery of High Zinc Rice in Bangladesh Project.
Prokash Gano Unnayan Kendra (PGUK) has been implementing this project with the support of HarvestPlus-Bangladesh. In May 14, 2017 PGUK has arranged a Field Day on importance and cultivation of Zinc enrich Rice BRRI dhan74.
In the field day Chief Guest was A. K. M. Shahria, Deputy Director, DAE, Cox’s Bazar. special guest Md. Enaet-E-Rabbi, Upazila Agriculture Officer, Sadar, Md. Moshiur Rahman, Monitoring Advisor, BNF, Joshim Uddin Joshim, Chairman, Khurushkul Union Parishad were present there. A. S. M. Amanul Hasan Taimur, Executive Director, PGUK was president the Field Day. In this program Md. Saiful Islam, SAAO, Sadar, Md. Saifur Rahman, Coordinator of PGUK, Md. Mizanur Rahman, Coordinator of PGUK, Asma Jerin, Accountr, PGUK was also present. A. K. M. Shahria says, Zinc enrich Rice BRRI dhan74 is newly released variety in Bangladesh. Furthermore, zinc proves to be a vital ingredient for human body.
According to research, zinc helps improving body growth, athletic performance and strength; In addition, it supports reproductive health and fertility for both men and women. As per statistics 41% of the children under 5 years old are zinc deficient in Bangladesh. Moreover, among the components of hidden hunger, zinc proves to be the most deficient element in Bangladesh. To address this nutritional deficiency HarvestPlus had launched its research through BRRI to invent such varieties of rice which will contain zinc in higher amount. In the continuation of HarvestPlus’s ideology, BRRI has released zinc rice BRRI dhan74 in the year 2015.
This variety is released for Boro Season with similar growth duration of BRRI dhan28, the most popular Boro variety in the country, having higher yield potentiality. The grain of BRRI dhan74 is medium bold grain containing about 24mg/kg zinc in milled rice.
