Green paddy fields stretch all around. Suddenly the eye catches a patch of land in the middle with purple rice plants. They look diseased, but they are not: they are a new kind of paddy.

This boro season, farmer Aktaruzzaman Patwari has caught everyone's attention by growing purple paddy on land in the field next to Sonali Girls' High School in Shahapur village of Faridganj upazila, Chandpur.

Not only the plants but also the rice is purple, so for now farmers know it simply as purple paddy or coloured paddy.

On a visit to the field, it was seen that Aktaruzzaman Patwari grew the paddy out of curiosity. Because the field is beside the road, it has caught the eye of passers-by. The plants have already flowered and the panicles are forming.

According to the Faridganj agriculture office, the purple paddy is not a foreign variety but local germplasm. Given field conditions, its life cycle is 145 to 155 days and the yield 55 to 60 maunds an acre, which may come to roughly 20kg a decimal (4 to 5 tonnes a hectare). The rice will be purple and tasty.

Aktaruzzaman Patwari said he collected the seed from a relative and grew the paddy on 25 decimals of land. The relative had collected the seed from China. So far the field is in good condition and panicles have begun to emerge. He raised seedlings from just 2kg of seed and transplanted them.

Md Nure Alam, sub-assistant agriculture officer in Faridganj upazila, said: "The farmer collected the seed on his own initiative and grew the coloured paddy. We have observed the purple paddy field. We will have to wait until harvest to know what the yield will be like. If the yield is good, there are plans to expand cultivation of this paddy in future."

Source: Dhaka Tribune. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.