BRRI develops seven high yielding verities of Aman paddy

Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) has developed seven modern paddy varieties for Aman season creating high hope among the farmers in general in the region including its vast Barind tract.

The varieties like Brridhan71, Brridhan75, Brridhan80, Brridhan87 and Brridhan90 are comparatively high yielding, drought tolerant and short duration than local variety ‘Swarna’ which is prone to various diseases and insects always affect the farmers.

BRRI Chief Scientific Officer Dr Aminul Islam revealed this while presenting his keynote paper in technical session of a daylong regional seminar titled “Way Forward of boosting Aman Paddy Yield in Rajshahi region” at BRRI’s Regional Office conference hall in Rajshahi yesterday.

He identically mentioned that the Swarna variety can easily be replaced with the modern Brridhan varieties in the Barind area and that can be the effective means of ensuring food security through boosting paddy production.

The modern varieties have opened up door of enormous prospects of food security along with mitigating the crises of irrigation water.

Additional Secretary (Research) of the Ministry of Agriculture Komolaranjan Das addressed the seminar as chief guest with BRRI Director General Dr Shahjahan Kabir in the chair.

Director General of Bangladesh Sugar Crop Research Institute Dr Amzad Hossain, Additional Director of Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) Dev Dulal Dhali, BRRI Director Dr Ansar Ali and its Senior Scientific Office Harun-Or-Rashid also spoke.

Komolaranjan Das urged the DAE officials to expand the drought tolerant varieties to the drough-affected areas like Tanore and Godagari Upazilas in Rajshahi, Nachole and Gomostapur Upazilas in Chapainawabgonj and Porsha and Shapahar in Naogaon districts for better yield.

He said concerted efforts of all scientists, researchers and extension officials are very important to boost Aman paddy yield to feed the gradually increasing population of the country.

As the rice is staple food of the country so its production needs to be enhanced through managing all sorts of challenges, including diseases and adverse impact of climate change.

Dr Shahjahan Kabir told the meeting that BRRI has, so far, developed 41 Aman varieties including 39 inbreeds which are suitable for cultivation in the country.

“We have released seven drought tolerant varieties including one aromatic for the Barind area,” he said adding that some of those have gained popularity among farmers during the last couple of years.

He also mentioned that the conventional varieties are being replaced by the modern varieties which are good signs for the region in terms of boosting yield.

More than 100 paddy related scientists, researchers and extension officials from both government and non-government entities concerned joined the workshop sharing views on the issue.