Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) is going to release 8 new stress-tolerant rice varieties soon which will be of short duration and higher yielding in quality, officials said.
Director of BRRI Dr Md Shahjahan Kabir said the institute will release the varieties named Brri dhan 65 to72.
"We have released six rice varieties -- Brri dhan 59 to 64 -- during the last twelve months," he said.
"Among the new 8 rice varieties, Brri dhan 65 will be suitable for Aus season and could be harvested in only 90 days," he said.
"The varieties which will be submergence, drought, cold and salinity-tolerant will be released within a few weeks," he added.
Meanwhile BRRI Director General Dr Jiban Krishna Biswas told the FE: "Due to the increasing trend of natural disasters caused by climate change, we have to adopt time-befitting technologies."
Developing new seed varieties suitable for different climatic conditions based on various agronomic zones of the country is now a must to cope with the climate change consequences, he said.
"BRRI is also working on that and developing suitable and profitable seed varieties for farmers," he said.
"Two new salinity-tolerant rice varieties will be released which will be able to tolerate 8 ds/m of salinity in their full lifetime," he said.
He also said they released the world's first zinc-enriched rice along with three other high yielding varieties of rice last year marking a great achievement in country's food security arena.
Of the four, Brri dhan 62 has already attracted much attention since the high-zinc rice meets the micronutrient requirements of the human body, he said.
"Farmers can harvest Brri dhan 62 in 100 days and its output can be minimum 3.5 tonnes to maximum 5.0 tonnes per hectare in Aman season," he said.
Brri dhan 64 is another zinc-enriched rice which will be cultivated in Boro season.
Brri dhan 63 is a high yielding variety which gives nearly 7.0 tonnes of produce per hectare.
If nurtured properly, the variety yields up to 4.5 to 5.0 tonnes per hectare, according to BRRI.
