Ratoon rice: not much cared for but a blessing for marginalised farmers

Only about a month after harvesting 85 maunds of Boro paddy from around five bighas of land, farmer Suresh Debnath of Sunamganj's Korchar haor area was able to gather another 25 maunds of paddy from the same field.

Locally known as Muri Dhan or Demi Dhan, the crop grows without human intervention from the stems of freshly cut rice plants by a natural process called ratooning.

This paddy is considered a blessing, meant only for the poor and marginalised farmers. As an age-old custom, solvent farmers refrain from gathering this crop.

Photo: Collected

"I have been harvesting Boro for around 25 years and gathering Muri dhan for the last five or six years," Suresh (50) of Bishwambarpur upazila said.

Ratooning does not cost anything if the weather remains favourable.

But most times after Boro harvest, flash floods hit the area or the water development board opens the dykes to inundate the haors for fishing. Meaning farmers do not get a chance to harvest the ratoon rice.

According to International Rice Research Institute (IRRI)'s 1988 publication 'Rice Ratooning', which defines the process as an ability of the rice plant to regenerate new panicle-bearing tillers after harvest, could be a practical way to increase rice production per unit area, in a short period of time.

It takes about 140 to 160 days for Boro production and ratoon rice takes about a month to grow but the yield is usually one-third of the initial harvest, said experts.

Professor Dr Mohammad Noor Hossain Miah of the Department of Agronomy and Haor Agriculture at Sylhet Agriculture University noted that ratoon rice grows at medium to medium-high elevation in the haor region during the Boro season, given favourable weather.

"As the yield is minimal, only the marginal farmers and poorer people harvest it. The haor land is very fertile and provides good yield without fertiliser," he said, asserting that the ratoon production can be increased with additional care.

Md Anwar Hossain, deputy director (cereal crops) of the crops wing of the Department of Agriculture Extension, said, "Most of the time, flood occurs in the haor region right after Boro harvest, leaving no opportunity for ratooning. Farmers at some higher elevation prepare for other crops and then Aman [paddy], leave no room for ratooning."

However, the deputy director agrees that ratoon rice as a chance crop can increase production if flooding is delayed such as this year.

Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) has been researching this topic since 1987 and published a paper in 2017 saying that ratoon rice can play a vital role in food security.

According to the publication, while harvesting the initial batch of Boro paddy, farmers should leave 20-35 centimetres of tillers. Irrigation and application of five kilograms of urea and potash fertilisers around five to seven days from the primary harvest can boost the ratoon production.

Md Shahjahan Kabir, director general of BRRI and also the key author of the article, said different types of paddy including BRRI-28, BRRI-81, BR-26 and hybrid varieties that can preserve carbohydrate are suitable for ratooning.

He, however, warned that ratoon paddy often retains the pests and diseases of the preceding Boro paddy which can later affect Aman production. 

Low production of Ratoon rice does not make it profitable enough for farmers to use pesticides and fertilisers, he said.