'Monga', the Bengali term, was used to describe famine-like situation in northern Bangladesh in which the poor suffered acute deprivation caused by their lack of purchasing power arising from seasonal scarcity of gainful employment. This acute seasonal distress had been recurrent phenomena each year as an inherent feature of northern Bangladesh, especially greater Rangpur district. Evidences indicate that the people of northern Bangladesh were faced severe food insecurity every year compared to the people of other parts of the country at two particular times of the year. In two periods of each year (between the month of mid-September to mid-November and mid-March to April), the rural poor who rely mostly on farm work, suffer severe seasonal hardship when household food availability and farm employment dry up. Mid-March to April lean season also brings hardship, but this is now less severe due to recent crop diversification in the northern region. Maize, potato, winter vegetables, wheat, mustard etc., are now being cultivated by the farmers, spreading the seasonal load of work and food supply.
Since long, the most serious lean season had been the period from mid-September to mid-November (bangla months of ashwin-kartik) each year, when many people got affected by monga. Hence, the rural poor living in these months passed days and even months with very little work and therefore income.
As a traditional practice, in northern Bangladesh, almost hundred per cent farmers cultivated aman (monsoon) rice crop. Most of the farmers cultivated this long duration rice variety which required 145-160 days (BR11, swarna, etc.). Farmers prepared the seedbed and sow seeds of these varieties in late June and prepared the fields in July for transplanting the seedlings in late July, and then conduct maintenance operations in August and early September. After that, there was a little farming field operations required from late September to early November and this was the main cause of monga. Since aman rice crop cultivation is universal, around 70 per cent of day-laborers and hardcore poor households are fully dependent on employment at various stages of amaon cultivation. Hence, there were few alternative job opportunities during late September to early November.
It is observed that farmers are now following diversified crops in the rabi/winter season, and thus the hardship in April (Chaitra-Baishakh) has lessened but not in the aman season. It may be pointed that the opportunity for crop diversification in monsoon period is also very less due to heavy rainfall during these months. This causes joblessness in agricultural works during late September to early November, where no work is required until harvesting in late November and December. On the other hand, farmers are facing serious problems to cultivate winter crops in right time (i.e., in November). Normally, in high and medium-high land farmers go for wheat/potato/mustard/winter vegetables/maize cultivation after harvesting of the aman crop. The proper time to cultivate these winter crops in northern Bangladesh is in November. But due to the presence of aman crops in most of the lands in November, farmers have no scope to avail the right time to cultivate such winter crops. This delayed cultivation hampers the normal yield and also increases the production cost of different winter crops. It may also be mentioned that if farmers were able to cultivate potato/wheat in right time (in November), they could have got more yield and also minimised production cost by reducing the use of pesticides, especially for potato. It may also be noted that wheat yield is reduced by at least 1 per cent for delayed plantation each day in early December.
To overcome the above situation, in 2003, a renowned NGO in northern Bangladesh RDRS along with Irrigation and Water Management Division of Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) under PETRRA-ICM project come-up with a short duration rice variety BRRI dhan33 which was released by the National seed board of the government in 1997. They tested the variety in the field in order to harvest rice in lean period. The variety was ripped in lean period (Awshin-Kartik), but huge amounts of crops were damaged by rats, insects and birds, as there were no other crops available in the field at that time.
Based on this learning, in 2004, RDRS established a research programme at RDRS Rangpur Farm under its supervision, where BRRI dhan33 was cultivated in the aman season using both direct and transplanted methods. The results were encouraging. The yield under direct seeding condition was 4.1 ton/ha and it was possible to harvest within 100 days of seeding. Under transplanted condition, the yield was 3.8 ton/ha and was possible to harvest within 120 days of seeding. It was realised that the short duration rice variety should be cultivated in a block system with involvement of many farmers at community level, so that farmers are able to protect crops from birds, insects and rats in a combined way.
In 2005, a PhD research programme was established by M. G. Neogi at RDRS Rangpur under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Abul Khair, Department of Botany of Jahangirnagar University and came up with very positive research findings. It is mentionable that it was the first formal research finding on introduction of short duration rice to mitigate monga. Side by side, RDRS extended the technology in 18 farmers' fields the same year and received an average yield of 4 ton/ha and the crops were harvested in early October.
Based on the previous two years research findings, RDRS in 2006, extended the technology in 1271 hectares of land through 22 local partner NGO's. Also with financial support from RIB along with training from BRRI Rangpur, around one hundred acres of land were cultivated by BRRI dhan33 where RDRS, BRDB, TMSS and USS were the key partner NGOs.
In 2007, the above technology was introduced jointly by the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) and RDRS in 1,820 hectares of land owned by 5,928 farmers through 25 local partner NGOs. Also a number of other organisations came forward to introduce the same technology.
In 2008, following a wide coverage by electronic and print media, the then Caretaker Government took the lead role to extend the same technology to 40,000 hectares of land under GO/NGO collaboration to ensure food security in lean period. In the same year, RDRS extended the technology to 2,500 hectares of land through 25 local partner NGOs. RDRS also piloted a new short duration rice variety (BINA dhan7), developed by the Bangladesh Institute of Nuclear Agriculture (BINA).
RDRS extended Binadhan-7 rice variety the following year, which was highly accepted by farmers for its short duration nature and also for higher yield. In the same year, RDRS also piloted another short duration rice variety (BUdhan1), which was developed by Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University (BSMRAU).
In 2010, RDRS extended BUdhan1 rice variety in farmers' fields along with BSMRAU and Agres Foundation with support from Kristi Gobeshona Foundation (KGF). The said variety was also highly accepted by farmers' for its short duration nature, long and medium size grain quality and higher yields. This year, RDRS is extending both BINA dhan7and BUdhan1 rice varieties in order to increase access to rice crop during lean period by marginal farmers and day-labourers. In this way, farmers of northern Bangladesh accepted the technology and are practising the same in their crop fields and getting advantages to harvest the crop in October and overcoming monga. By this time, a number of short duration rice varieties like BRRI dhan56, 57, 62, Binadhan-12, etc., has been released and these varieties are becoming popular in northern Bangladesh.
Yield of short duration rice is slightly low due to early maturity compared to normal harvest of long duration rice variety. But the net profit of these short duration rice varieties was found higher than the traditional long duration variety due to low production cost and higher market prices. Also to minimise the yield gap, the spacing to transplant short duration rice varieties should be reduced compared to long duration rice variety which will help increase optimum yield.
As a result of the Programmes, around 60 day-laborers may be occupied per hectare for harvest and post-harvest operations in lean period. After harvesting of short duration rice in lean period, it is now possible to cultivate winter crops in right time, which increases yield and reduces production cost. After harvesting of potato, farmers may go for mungbean cultivation (still it is not very popular) as an additional crop, which may not only help increase production and income but also increase household nutrition and improve soil health.
Dr. M. G. Neogi is consultant International Rice Research Institute (IRRI).
mgneogi@gmail.com