RAJSHAHI, May 18: Farmers have started cropping diversity after the best use of new and modern technologies and seeds in Barind tract in the wake of adverse impact of climate change.
Agriculture officials and scientists said the farmers reduced the cultivation of irrigation-dependent crop, especially IRRI-Boro paddy in the Barind tract, commonly known as food storage of the country.
As a result, the acreage of various crops and cereals like wheat, maize, chickpea and black gram is increasing gradually in the drought-prone Barind tract comprising 25 upazilas of Rajshahi, Chapainawabganj and Naogaon districts.
"In many occasions, we are motivating the farmers to promote various cereals instead of only farming paddy in the current water- stress condition," said Engineer Abdur Rashid, executive director of Barind Multipurpose Development Authority (BMDA).
He said about 3,500 litres of water is needed to produce one kilogram of paddy, whereas less than 1,000 litres of water is required for the drought-tolerant varieties. Not only that, at least 15 bighas of land can easily be cultivated for wheat with using equal amount of water on one bigha of paddy land.
Rashid suggested appropriate use of farm machinery like power tiller operated seeder, strip till and zero till, bed planter, reaper and thresher to enhance the cereal production especially wheat.
ATM Rafiqul Islam, deputy manager (agriculture) of BMDA, said the continuous paddy farming in the Barind tract may face an acute crisis of water. So, more importance should be given on those cereals, which need less irrigation.
He said irrigation water has reduced to a greater extent in the Barind area that declines farming of transplanted Aman.
To address the problem, BMDA and the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) have taken initiative to launch two drought- tolerant paddy varieties. He said preparation to bring drought tolerant varieties- BRRI Dhan-48, BRRI Dhan-56 and BRRI Dhan-57 is underway.
Life span of BRRI Dhan-57, a short duration and drought-tolerant variety, is 10 days less than that of BINA Dhan-7, an early and high yielding variety, while 15 days less than BRRI Dhan-33.
After a long research, the regional station of Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) has developed the drought tolerant rice varieties for the farmers of the drought-prone areas in the region for the first time.
Despite scanty rainfall, these varieties will give a satisfactory yield without any irrigation during the transplanted Aman season in the drought-prone area.
Agriculturist Rafique mentioned that average yield of the BRRI Dhan-56 variety is 4.03 tonnes per hectare, while it is 3.74 tonnes from the BRRI Dhan-57 variety.
SM Mustafizur Rahman, additional director of Rajshahi DAE hoped that the varieties would bring a positive result for about two million hectares of land in the rain-fed drought-prone area.
Terming the development of the drought-tolerant varieties as the demand of time, he expected that the new varieties would contribute a lot to ensure food security.
