Farmers from different regions of Bangladesh gathered in Khulna to describe the journeys behind the new rice varieties they have developed. They spoke on Wednesday (3 May) at an event titled "The story of developing new rice varieties" in the conference room of the Khulna fish seed production farm.

Farmer breeders Nayan Mia and Syed Ahmed Khan Bachchu of Netrokona, Md Monowar Hossain of Manikganj, Indigenous farmer Malati Minji of Rangpur, Md Abdul Bari of Mymensingh, Md Sheikh Sirajul Islam and Dilip Tarafdar of Satkhira, Nur Mohammad of Rajshahi and Aruni Sarkar of Khulna presented locally suited varieties and their experiences.

They said they are at various stages of developing varieties: Nayan Mia and Syed Ahmed Khan Bachchu four each, Monowar Hossain three, Abdul Bari two, Sheikh Sirajul Islam one, Dilip Tarafdar two, Malati Minji one, Nur Mohammad about 200 and Aruni Sarkar 10.

The event was organised by the NGO Lokoj with support from Misereor, Germany, and chaired by journalist-researcher and Lokoj president Gouranga Nandy. After a welcome by executive director Debprasad Sarkar and a presentation by Dr S M Ferdous, former principal of the Agricultural Training Institute, speakers included Khulna University agrotechnology professors, DAE additional director (Khulna region) Mohan Kumar Ghosh, BRRI Satkhira chief scientific officer Dr Tahmid Ansari, BARI chief scientific officer Dr Harun-or-Rashid, district seed certification officer Md Nazrul Islam, BINA senior scientific officer Dr Md Babul Akter and others.

Academics, researchers, officials, NGO and civil society representatives, journalists and farmers attended, and speakers urged everyone to come forward to develop rice varieties suited to their areas.

Source: Jagonews24 (reported by Alamgir Hannan). First published in Bengali on The Agro News.