Early harvest brings relief to monga-hit districts

A ripe field of short duration BINA Dhan-7 variety paddy now ready for harvest at poverty-hit Gangachara upazila in Rangpur. Photo: BSS

Harvest of short duration BINA Dhan-7 has already begun at the peak hour of seasonal lean period bringing relief to the people of poverty-prone areas of greater Rangpur and Dinajpur districts.
Farmers are expected to complete the harvest by the third week of October and it will help combat lean period crisis of Bangla months Aswin and Kartik although monga is not felt now anywhere for adequate government steps.
Because of its excellent yield rate and early harvest during the peak monga period, the enthusiastic farmers brought more land under BINA Dhan-7 cultivation this season, officials and experts of Rangpur-Dinajpur Rural Service (RDRS) said yesterday.
MG Neogi, head of agriculture at the RDRS, said the NGO attained a huge success in combating seasonal monga through expanded farming of short duration BRRI Dhan-33 in recent years and now it is expanding cultivation of BINA Dhan-7 for the same purpose.
Bangladesh Institute of Nuclear Agriculture (BINA) invented the short duration paddy variety in 2007 and later the National Seed Board approved it for expanded field level farming.
The paddy is being harvested within 115 days from the date of seedling transplantation and within 100 days of sowing seeds using dry and wet methods, said Dr Shamsuzzaman, director of Resources and Environment at the RDRS.
After producing and collecting 18 tonnes during the last Boro season, the RDRS went to expand the cultivation of the paddy during this T-Aman season involving 19 NGOs in these eight districts.
A total of 2,312 farmers completed transplantation of BINA Dhan-7 seedlings in 894 acres of land by the middle of July last and they began its harvest with four tonnes paddy per hectare at this peak hour of seasonal lean period.
Next year, BINA Dhan-7 will be cultivated in 10,000 bighas of land involving 10,000 farmers in these districts and the RDRS will provide them with 50 tonnes of seeds.
DAE Deputy Director Kamal Shariful Alam told the news agency that the colour of BINA Dhan-7 is very attractive and its rice is comparatively longer and finer raising its market price.
The variety is also more resistant against various diseases like 'Khol Poncha', 'Pata Pora', stem rotting and other diseases.
Besides, the poor and farm labourers fall prey to seasonal job crisis every year for no work in the fields during the months of Aswin and Kartik when the traditionally planted Aman paddy starts blooming.
So considering these factors, the RDRS started cultivating BINA Dhan-7 in a larger scale to advance its harvesting period and all other subsequent crops in the same land by at least 40 days than the traditional crop harvesting periods.
Moreover, potatoes can be cultivated earlier in the harvested land with 15 percent more productions with higher prices.
The farmers cultivated the paddy in 285 acres of land in Kurigram, 92 acres in Rangpur, 111 acres in Lalmonirhat, 116 acres in Nilphamari, 46.5 acres in Gaibandha, 51 acres in Dinajpur, 87.91 acres in Panchagarh and in 102 acres in Thakurgaon this season.
Farmers in these areas are expecting bumper production of their cultivated BINA Dhan-7.