Farmers start preserving popular indigenous rice varieties in Tangail
Monday, 24 September 2012
Yasir Wardad
back from Tangail
Move to protect local seeds has been spreading across the Tangail district as farmers have started preserving popular indigenous rice varieties sustainable to changing climate condition.
The peasantry of Delduar upazila under the Taingail district have come forward to preserve seeds themselves to combat any future disaster, it was found by the FE rounding the upazila recently.
There is a popular rice varieiy of Tangail named 'Chamara'. Many songs and rhymes are murmured orally in Tangail related to that rice variety. One of the famous rhymes is like 'Eshtir Moddhe Mamara, Dhaner Moddhe Chamara' which means maternal uncles are best among relatives and Chamara is best among rice varieties.
Chamara variety grows parallel to an increasing trend of flood water. Tangail is geographically a low area adjacent to the Jamuna, Dhaleswary, Lauhajang and Banshi rivers which makes flooding very normal here.
"The local farmers had indigenous varieties which could grow even in flood condition, like Panishail and Chamara rice", Bahadur Mia, a farmer aged 72 at Kanda union shared his memory.
He said: "In Baishakh (first month of Bangla calendar starts on April 14), we used to cultivate rice varieties of Aus season. We had seed variety like Kalamanik, Bagun Bichi, Betor---all are lost although there had no cost for cultivating the varieties."
"We have realised it that losing seeds has brought disasters," Bahadur said.
The more it rains, the more Chamara variety grows--- new branches blooms and the production become good. Dozens of some varieties which used to be cultivated in Aman and Aus seasons have vanished, Bahadur said.
But, the farmers of Tangail have now started coming forward to preserve the existing crop varieties of their heritage.
Hundreds of seed preservation centres and farmer organisations have mushroomed up at Delduar and other upazilas in Tangail by farmers' own initiatives.
Kamala Begum, a farmer at Nalpara village preserves rice, potato and wheat verities every year after cultivation and harvest.
She said: "We have learnt that if you (the farmers) have seed, then you can live. So we cultivate our own seeds and preserve ourselves".
She continued: "Seed is like our siblings, we care for it like our sons and daughters. We have now many options concerned to using seeds. We make choice of seed after considering climate condition of a corresponding year--- no risk of losses---."
"Seed crisis in our village is almost zero. We have lost hundreds of crop varieties, but not anymore---" she added.
Rabeya Khatun of same village informed that nearly 500 farmers of the village use their own-preserved seeds of cereal and vegetables.
Production is not less than the HYV seeds sold at markets as the farmers have already brought a development in the local seeds, she added.
Agriculture Extension Officer of Delduar under the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE), Md Golam Rasul told the FE that the DAE appreciates their move.
He said the farmers also have many high yielding verities (HYVs) of rice which they produce during Boro season.
Rasul said following drought and flood, these preservation would be very fruitful.
According to the DAE, Delduar, the upazilla has a total of 16500 hectares of arable land for Boro and Aman cultivation.
In Aman season, most of the land are brought under indigenous local varieties from the farmers' own stock.
In-charge of Delduar Centre of Beej Bistar Foundation (BBF), a private organisation working for enhancing local seed varieties, Md Raihan said 58 villages in the district have so far started the seed preservation.
Chairman of the BBF and prominent seed expert Dr M Sobhan told the FE that under the supervision of the foundation, farmers have been preserving nearly 3000 seed varieties or cereal, vegetable and flowers.
Seeds are preserved naturally after completing harvest, he said.
He informed that farmers have 3000 varieties of seeds including 31 kinds of rice varieties suitable for making local food item Khai, 23 for Chira, 29 varieties suitable for making Pitha, 34 kinds for Muri, 22 Aromatic rice and 25 HYV varieties.
back from Tangail
Move to protect local seeds has been spreading across the Tangail district as farmers have started preserving popular indigenous rice varieties sustainable to changing climate condition.
The peasantry of Delduar upazila under the Taingail district have come forward to preserve seeds themselves to combat any future disaster, it was found by the FE rounding the upazila recently.
There is a popular rice varieiy of Tangail named 'Chamara'. Many songs and rhymes are murmured orally in Tangail related to that rice variety. One of the famous rhymes is like 'Eshtir Moddhe Mamara, Dhaner Moddhe Chamara' which means maternal uncles are best among relatives and Chamara is best among rice varieties.
Chamara variety grows parallel to an increasing trend of flood water. Tangail is geographically a low area adjacent to the Jamuna, Dhaleswary, Lauhajang and Banshi rivers which makes flooding very normal here.
"The local farmers had indigenous varieties which could grow even in flood condition, like Panishail and Chamara rice", Bahadur Mia, a farmer aged 72 at Kanda union shared his memory.
He said: "In Baishakh (first month of Bangla calendar starts on April 14), we used to cultivate rice varieties of Aus season. We had seed variety like Kalamanik, Bagun Bichi, Betor---all are lost although there had no cost for cultivating the varieties."
"We have realised it that losing seeds has brought disasters," Bahadur said.
The more it rains, the more Chamara variety grows--- new branches blooms and the production become good. Dozens of some varieties which used to be cultivated in Aman and Aus seasons have vanished, Bahadur said.
But, the farmers of Tangail have now started coming forward to preserve the existing crop varieties of their heritage.
Hundreds of seed preservation centres and farmer organisations have mushroomed up at Delduar and other upazilas in Tangail by farmers' own initiatives.
Kamala Begum, a farmer at Nalpara village preserves rice, potato and wheat verities every year after cultivation and harvest.
She said: "We have learnt that if you (the farmers) have seed, then you can live. So we cultivate our own seeds and preserve ourselves".
She continued: "Seed is like our siblings, we care for it like our sons and daughters. We have now many options concerned to using seeds. We make choice of seed after considering climate condition of a corresponding year--- no risk of losses---."
"Seed crisis in our village is almost zero. We have lost hundreds of crop varieties, but not anymore---" she added.
Rabeya Khatun of same village informed that nearly 500 farmers of the village use their own-preserved seeds of cereal and vegetables.
Production is not less than the HYV seeds sold at markets as the farmers have already brought a development in the local seeds, she added.
Agriculture Extension Officer of Delduar under the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE), Md Golam Rasul told the FE that the DAE appreciates their move.
He said the farmers also have many high yielding verities (HYVs) of rice which they produce during Boro season.
Rasul said following drought and flood, these preservation would be very fruitful.
According to the DAE, Delduar, the upazilla has a total of 16500 hectares of arable land for Boro and Aman cultivation.
In Aman season, most of the land are brought under indigenous local varieties from the farmers' own stock.
In-charge of Delduar Centre of Beej Bistar Foundation (BBF), a private organisation working for enhancing local seed varieties, Md Raihan said 58 villages in the district have so far started the seed preservation.
Chairman of the BBF and prominent seed expert Dr M Sobhan told the FE that under the supervision of the foundation, farmers have been preserving nearly 3000 seed varieties or cereal, vegetable and flowers.
Seeds are preserved naturally after completing harvest, he said.
He informed that farmers have 3000 varieties of seeds including 31 kinds of rice varieties suitable for making local food item Khai, 23 for Chira, 29 varieties suitable for making Pitha, 34 kinds for Muri, 22 Aromatic rice and 25 HYV varieties.