New rice tames Monga

Early harvest of short duration rice variety BR-33 brings hope of food in the lean season and job opportunity for marginal farmers and farm labourers in the monga-prone northern areas like Dharmadas village in Rangpur. Photo: SK Enamul Haq

Gone are the days when Monga (seasonal and localised famine) used to stalk the landless farm labourers and marginal farmers of five northern districts during the lean period of October-November each year.
Thanks to modern rice science that has bred short-duration varieties like BRRI dhan-33 and BINA dhan-7 much to the relief of over 37 lakh hard-hit poor, who have now started saying goodbye to Monga.
Both the high yielding rice varieties (HYVs) mature in 115 days and can be harvested at least a month before the other HYV -- BR11-- that farmers have been growing so far during aman season.
Early harvesting of the new varieties this year in as much as 44,000 hectares of land in the five Monga-prone districts of greater Rangpur has successfully absorbed the farm labourers and marginal farmers, who otherwise remain unemployed due to lack of farm activities in this lean period of the year. The five districts are Rangpur, Gaibandha, Lalmonirhat, Kurigram and Nilphamari.
On top of the rice scientists' success in breeding short-duration varieties, non-government initiatives are also there to help farmers in the Teesta chars build 'Rice Banks', an innovative way of lending rice to the needy under a cooperative arrangement.
Previously, farm labourers had to remain idle for lack of on-farm jobs when aman paddy plantation ends by mid-September, and Monga forced a large number of them to leave for other districts in search of employment. By early October, marginal farmers also used to exhaust their stock of paddy for family consumption, and this forced them to starve or sell land for buying food.
Dr Md Abdul Jalil Mridha, who heads Rangpur Regional Station of Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI), told The Daily Star that efforts are on to bring over one lakh hectares of land in the five districts under short-duration rice cultivation during aman season by 2010-11. This would help the 37 lakh farm labourers and marginal farmers conquer the seasonal famine once for all.
“This will require providing the farmers with 4,280 tonnes of seeds so that they can cover 1,07,000 hectares of land, as targeted by the government, by 2010-11,” said Dr Mridha.
With support from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Bangladesh Institute of Nuclear Agriculture (BINA) in Mymensingh developed BINA dhan-7, and the variety got approval from the National Seed Board in 2007.
During a field day programme at Joyrampur Anwar village in Rangpur's Mithapukur upazila recently, Chief Scientific Officer (plant breeding) of BINA Dr Md Ali Azam said, “BINA dhan-7 is an early harvest variety. It can be harvested in mid-October. Massive cultivation of this rice can create job opportunity for the farm labourers during October and November, thereby stumping out Monga from the region completely.”
Dr M A Mazid, who heads one of the eight hubs of the International Rice Research Institute's flagship programme -- Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA)-- said the short-duration aman rice varieties hold the prospect of farmers' growing potato right in time before they go for the next big rice season -- boro.
While visiting Char Dushmara, a remote Teesta char under Kounia upazila in Rangpur, these correspondents talked to Rahima Khatun, whose husband Abdul Monnaf is a farm labourer without having any land of their own.
Rahima said unlike the Monga period in previous years, this time they did not have to go unfed as her husband cultivated short-duration aman under share-cropping arrangement in one and half acres of land. They harvested the rice a few days ago.
Her neighbour Abdur Rahman had the same happy experience to share. Rahman recalled that in the previous years he along with other villagers used to go to Bogra in search of work during Aswhin and Kartik (Monga period in Bangla calendar). This time he did not go to Bogra as he found work in his own area.
Moreover, poor people in the char areas now feel less vulnerable because of the building of 'Rice Banks.' Under an NGO-initiative, marginal farmers form groups of 25 people each and get a one-time rice stock of one tonne to lend to any one of them who needs it badly.
Fuad Ahmed Khan, a monitoring officer of Rangpur Dinajpur Rural Service, who overseas a climate change coping project in Char Dushmara, said each member of 'Rice Bank' groups can take one maund of rice as loan and return the same with two to five kg interest, as determined by the groups, when crops are harvested.