<i>Hope for 3 paddy crops a year in N dists</i>

High yielding Ratan paddy (Kushi Dhan) cultivated at the farm of RDRS in Rangpur.Photo: STAR

Rangpur Dinajpur Rural Service (RDRS), an NGO, has evolved a new technology to cultivate paddy thrice a year in northern districts.
RDRS evolved the new technology after conducting research at its farm at Uttam for three years. The technology was already transferred to 42 farmers in Rangpur, Kurigram and Thakurgaon districts.
The RDRS authorities claimed that food insecurity of the country would be removed to a great extent by producing aman paddy twice a season.
Usually, farmers in the region cultivate two kinds of paddy, aman and boro, in a year on high land, they said. Applying the new technology, farmers will be able to cultivate aman crop twice a year, they added.
RDRS has taken steps for participatory field tests to popularise the technology among farmers this season.
RDRS coordinator MG Niogi said following harvest of hybrid rice in boro season, plants grow again from roots of the harvested paddy within five to six days. It can be re-transplanted in fields within 15 days. Since its re transplantation, paddy can be harvested within 75 to 80 days, he said adding, they named it 'Kushi dhan.'