Sentu Chandra Hajong, 55, a farmer from Chatkia village in Nayabil union of Nalitabari upazila, Sherpur, has developed 25 new rice varieties over 21 years. With no laboratory or modern equipment, he uses his own 12 kathas of farmland as a test field, and he is aiming for more than 200. Hundreds of local farmers grow his varieties, and demand for them in the market is rising.
He began experimenting after training with a local NGO in 2005. He works by cross-breeding, and developing and testing a single new variety took him seven years. His land now holds 440 trial plots. His first success was 'Sentu Shail', and his varieties are known by the names Sentu-1 to Sentu-25; among the best known are Sentu Shail, three kinds of Sentu Paijam, three kinds of Chini Shail, and Tulshimala.
He also keeps local rice varieties that are dying out, growing Bogi, Halai, Golapi, Malanchi, Moynagiri, Malsira, Onamia, Parijat, Apchi, Kaishabinni, Marakkabinni, Shongbinni, Dudhbinni, Biroi, Chapal, Khasiabinni and others on his land every year. He is now testing Dhepa, Chapal, Purabinni and Nedrabinni, and uses cow dung and vermicompost he makes himself.
Many local rice varieties are disappearing, Sentu Hajong said, although each has its own taste and qualities and many suffer less from pests. He said he has received no government recognition or incentive and still works from a broken-down house. A laboratory from the government, he said, would let him conserve much more.
Razzak Mia, a farmer from the same area, said several of Sentu's varieties are the most widely grown locally because they yield so well, and in the aman season he grows nothing else. Al-Amin, a seed seller in Nalitabari, said demand for four of Sentu's varieties is so high in the aman season that even when traders stock up beforehand, many shops run out.
Mohammad Sakhawat Hossain, deputy director of the Department of Agricultural Extension in Sherpur, said Sentu Hajong's own work on rice varieties has stirred new interest in farming locally. The office will send his name to the agriculture ministry for recognition and an award as an innovator, he said, and meanwhile it advises and supports him and invites him to upazila events.
The report is by Krishi Shomoy's Sherpur correspondent.
Photo: Ayman Nakib Badhan / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Source: Krishi Shomoy
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