Call for farming purple leaf rice to boost yield

GAIBANDHA, May 22: Speakers in a function recently laid emphasis on the need for farming purple leaf rice in the coming seasons to boost paddy yield.

They said the production of purple leaf rice is 7.50 tonnes per hectare of land against 7.0 tonnes of the local varieties.

They made the comments while addressing a function on sample harvest of purple leaf rice in Bhabanipur village of Ramjibon union under Sundarganj upazila.

Sundarganj upazila agriculture office of the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) arranged the function.

UNO SM Locus Kibria addressed the function as the chief guest while district training officer (DTO) of DAE Showkat Osman presided over the ceremony.

Upazila agriculture officer Rashedul Islam said farmer Dulali Sundari of the village found two fists of seeds of purple rice in a packet of paddy seed which she purchased from a local market two years ago.

Later, Dulali sowed the seeds in a land and after getting seed plant, she cultivated it in the last Boro season and got six kgs of paddy, he said.

Dulali did not use the paddy as menu, on the contrary, she cultivated it further on 18 decimals of land this year and her paddy field turned into a purple one and created a new attraction to the local farmers, he added.

As the color of the paddy became purple and its sheaf was also big in size for bearing 218 paddies, many people came from different upazilas and its neighboring areas to visit the field with curiosity.

At one stage, the matter of purple rice farming by Dulali Sundari caught sight attention of upazila agriculture office and then, they took the necessary steps to protect the paddy field anyhow to make research about the variety and its expansion, he commented.

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