Drought tolerant paddy being cultivated in Rangpur

Our Correspondent RANGPUR, Oct 10: Rangpur Dinajpur Rural Service (RDRS) is cultivating a drought tolerant variety of paddy on trial basis in Rangpur and Panchagarh districts to face the adverse effect of climate change, as every year a vast tract of land in the country is getting dry. "It is a drought tolerant and short duration paddy which the farmers of drought prone area of Bangladesh can cultivate it to face the challenge of climate change", said RDRS agriculturist MG Neogi. "International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) had been trying to evolve the variety for long time. It calls the variety as IR74371-70-1-1", he said. Good yield can be achieved if fertilisers are applied properly after testing the fertility of the land. A hectare of land needs 15 Kg of phosphorus, 17 Kg of potash and 30 kg of Nitrogen fertilisers for good production of the variety, he also said. In India the farmers of drought prone states have been cultivating the paddy variety massively since 2009 and the Indian government named the paddy as "Shabaji", he added. RDRS has undertaken the project on a trial basis and has already found the variety effective for cultivation on drought prone land. The paddy has also been proved to have strong resistance against plant diseases and pest attack. The sheaf of the paddy is around 25 cm long and the size of the plant 85-90 cm. Around 4 tonnes of paddy can be produced in one hectare of land, official sources said. The farmers in drought prone areas are usually encouraged to cultivate the variety. They are advised to transplant 25 days old saplings in a well-prepared land. They need around 40 Kg seeds to grow saplings for a hectare of land, sources added.