If cultivation of high-yielding rice varieties can be expanded, boro productivity can be raised to 4.60 tonnes a hectare by the 2024-25 financial year, increasing total boro production by 14.38 lakh tonnes. Likewise, aman productivity can be raised from 2.95 tonnes to 3.44 tonnes a hectare, increasing production by 14.63 lakh tonnes.

Aus season production can also be increased by 3.62 lakh tonnes. In other words, overall rice production can be increased by about 33.5 lakh tonnes in three years.

This information was presented at a workshop at the KIB auditorium in Khamarbari in the capital on Thursday 13 October, organised by the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) and the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE).

The workshop heard that if BRRI dhan28 and BRRI dhan29, varieties grown for more than two decades, are replaced according to plan with high-yielding varieties such as BRRI dhan89, BRRI dhan92 and Bangabandhu dhan100, boro productivity can be raised from four tonnes to 4.60 tonnes a hectare by 2024-25, increasing total boro production by 14.38 lakh tonnes over the period.

Similarly, by changing varieties, aman productivity can go from 2.95 tonnes to 3.44 tonnes a hectare, increasing production by 14.63 lakh tonnes. Doing the same in the aus season can raise production by 3.62 lakh tonnes.

BRRI's presentation said that to increase rice productivity, it must first be raised through varieties. Production must also be increased by improving production systems, bringing unused land under cultivation and changing the conventional cropping pattern.

The DAE paper said the prevailing cropping pattern in the country is aman-fallow-boro. This can be changed to grow short-duration rice in the aman season, then, instead of leaving the land fallow, a short-duration improved oilseed crop, followed by boro.

On edible oil, the paper said that by introducing the new aman-mustard-boro cropping pattern, oilseed production can be increased by 24 lakh tonnes by 2024-25, about three times current production. As a result, 40-50 percent of the demand for edible oil could be produced locally within three years.

Agriculture Minister Md Abdur Razzaque attended the workshop, titled "Inclusion of oil crops in the existing cropping pattern and increasing production of high-yielding rice varieties". Also present were Agriculture Secretary Md Sayedul Islam, State Minister for Planning Shamsul Alam and former Bangladesh Bank governor Atiur Rahman.

BRRI director general Shahjahan Kabir gave the welcome speech. The keynote papers were presented by Md Ibrahim, chief scientific officer and head of BRRI's Rice Farming Systems Division, and Habibur Rahman Chowdhury, director of the DAE's Field Services Wing.

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