A 200-bigha field in Chargachhia village, Burirchar union, Barguna Sadar, has come under Boro cultivation for the first time. In previous years the land lay fallow at this time. This year BRRI dhan67, 74, 89, 92, 99 and Bangabandhu dhan100 were grown across the field, and sample harvests produced record yields.

BRRI dhan89 yielded 37 maunds per bigha, BRRI dhan92 33 maunds, and BRRI dhan67, 74 and 99 28 maunds each, according to a Ministry of Agriculture press release on the sample harvest on Wednesday (3 May).

The planting on 200 bighas (27 hectares) was led by the Irrigation and Water Management Division of the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) under the Coastal Crop Intensification Programme. The 300 farmers received seed, irrigation, fertiliser and all other inputs free, with water brought from canals and advice provided.

BRRI Director General Shahjahan Kabir said the yield was incredible: nowhere else in the country had BRRI got 36 maunds per bigha, yet such coastal land is left fallow, a huge loss. Five or six promising varieties were grown this year, and those that yield best will be grown next year. Farmers said they would keep growing rice and would not leave an inch fallow if they got water.

Also present were BRRI irrigation division head Md Moniruzzaman, DAE Barishal additional director Shawkat Osman, Kazi Shirin Akhter Jahan of BRRI's Barishal regional office and DAE Barguna deputy director Syed Zobaidul Alam.

About 25 per cent of Bangladesh is coastal. In the Barishal region, especially Barguna, Pirojpur, Jhalakathi, Patuakhali and Barishal, much land lies fallow in the dry season, and salinity limits most areas to one crop a year. More than 500,000 hectares of coastal land stay uncultivated each dry season, partly for lack of irrigation, even though rivers such as the Tentulia, Baleshwar, Bishkhali, Payra and Kirtankhola hold plenty of fresh water.

To bring fallow land under cultivation with irrigation, the ministry and BRRI are running the Coastal Crop Intensification Programme. In the 2022-23 Boro season, block demonstrations of high-yielding BRRI dhan74, 89 and 92 and salt-tolerant BRRI dhan67, 97 and 99 were set up on about 3,500 bighas (470 hectares) in the Barishal region. According to the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), Boro covered 3,000 hectares in Barguna Sadar this year, 500 hectares more than last year.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.