RAJSHAHI, May 26 (BSS): After the Brridhan-62, there has been a bright prospect of growing Brridhan-64 in the region including its vast barind tract in the years ahead.
The newly-innovated paddy variety may open up a door of enormous prospects of mitigating zinc and protein deficiency besides fighting diarrhoea and pneumonia-induced childhood deaths and stunting.
Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) released the variety all over the country last year after a latest breakthrough in research in the field.
It is a short-duration high-yielding variety of rice that could be cultivated in Aman season. The BRRI breeders developed the hi-zinc rice with support from Harvest Plus, which is a global bio-fortification mission.
Dr Khairul Bashar, Country Manager of Harvest Plus Bangladesh, told the news agency that the BRRI-64 has been the most-discussed rice variety as it is a zinc-fortified breed and has been developed to meet the necessary requirement of micronutrient for a human body coupled with ensuring food security.
Each kilogram of rice of BRRI-64 contained 19 mg of zinc and 9.0 per cent of protein which will ensure high nutrition and play a significant role in prevention of diseases; Zinc also plays a vital role in preventing liver-related diseases.
Zinc, iron and vitamin-A are the three most vital micronutrients, deficiency of which hampers children's natural growth and decrease their disease prevention capacity.
In Bangladesh, over 40 per cent children under five are stunted while an estimated 44 per cent children of the same age group are at risk of zinc deficiency.
Both BRRI-62 and BRRI-64, which are capable of fighting diarrhoea and pneumonia-induced childhood deaths and stunting, have been developed by BRRI breeders through application of biological fortification (bio fortification).
The varieties are the world's first-ever rice class developed in a bio-fortified system through breeding between local rice variety Zira Katari and BRRI- 39, Dr Bashar said.
It is a short duration rice variety that can be harvested within 100 days after plantation and this variety may give yield up to 4.5 to 6.0 tonnes per hectare if nurtured properly, he added.
It is expected that consumption of the rice enriched with zinc will highly remove malnutrition, particularly, this rice will help protect child health, he said.
International Centre for Tropical Agriculture and International Food Policy Research Institute are jointly implementing the harvest plus project aims at promoting the variety throughout the country.
Various government and non-government development organisations including Department of Agriculture Extension are supplementing the field level promotional activities in 50 districts of the country during the current transplanted Aman season.
