Putting a bad season behind them, farmers in the haor wetlands of Tahirpur upazila, Sunamganj, have begun sowing boro rice seed. Seedbeds are being prepared in Shanir Haor, Matian Haor, Mahalia and the upazila's other haors, though farmers are worried because the water has receded early this year.
In past years seed sowing began around the 25th of Kartik, farmers said; this year it started at the very beginning of the month.
The bigger change is in the seed. Ruhul Amin of Bhati Tahirpur village said he lost money last year on BRAC's Shakti-2 and 777 seed: traders told him the grain gave poorly filled rice that crumbles in the mill. Mosharraf Hossain, a paddy trader from Kishoreganj, said traders pay Tk 150 to 200 less per maund for those two varieties than for others because a maund yields less rice.
Seed dealer Samayun Kabir in Tahirpur bazar said farmers are buying more of Syngenta's 1203, BADC's BRRI hybrid dhan 8, National Agricare's Janak Raj, BRAC's Shakti-3, ACI Seed's Bondhu, BRRI 67 and BADC's BRRI dhan 92 this year, with Syngenta 1203 in greatest demand. Sales of Shakti-2 and 777 have collapsed.
Kabir Ahmed, a marketing officer at BRAC Seed, said demand for Shakti seed has fallen this year.
Boro is the main crop of the year on the haors' single-crop land, and the farmers' accounts show that what traders will buy now shapes which seed they sow.
Photo: Harvesting paddy in a haor of Sunamganj, Balaram Mahalder / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Source: samakal
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