Shahidul Islam and Amreto Kumar Sarkar from Rajshahi
Noor Mohammad is a self-educated farmer from the drought-prone Barind Tract region. He has been involved in agriculture and agricultural research since childhood. Barind Tract region has experienced more heat and drought day by day. Again, due to lack of ground water, agriculture is disrupted in this region. Drought and lack of water leave large amounts of land fallow in the region. Experiencing such condition in the region, farmer Noor Mohammad has been trying to invent such rice variety which could tolerate drought and require less water. This will help farmers to make proper use of their lands which ultimately will contribute in increased food production.
However, Noor Mohammad started working on his own for 10 years to develop drought tolerant rice varieties. After a long 10 years, this time in the Boro season, he conducted an experiment on the productivity of 19 drought-tolerant rice with the farmers of Jhinar Para village of Bandhair Union of Tanor Upazila of Rajshahi. BARCIK provided facilitative and supportive role in this work of Noor Mohammad. It is to mention that Barind Tract region is known as drought prone area. Water scarcity is a major problem for all activities including crop cultivation. And Badair Union of Tanor Upazila of Rajshahi District is known as the most drought prone area in this region. Due to lack of water, huge amounts of land in this union remain fallow. Again, the lands which farmers use to produce crops every year sometimes experience irregular rainfall and lack of irrigation causes crop loss for the farmers. Thus, it has been that rainfed Aman paddy cannot be cultivated in this area due to lack of rain. And in the case of bore paddy, many lands are left fallow due to low water table and lack of opportunity for irrigation.
With the objective to help farmers self-educated rice scientist farmer Noor Mohammad of Tanor upazila came forward with his invented drought tolerant varieties. He started experimental research work on 19 rice varieties of his own invention in 10 katha land with support from BARCIK, a development organization at the beginning of the Boro season. His experiment can solve the problems of the farmers and will allow farmers to make proper use of their lands cultivating the drought tolerant rice varieties that he invented. Since farmers can conserve the seeds of all the invented varieties that they cultivate that is why it is hoped that the invention could contribute in increasing the diversity of drought tolerant varieties and facilitate the availability of seeds among the farmers.
Noor Mahammad has developed a format where he monitors the change and preserves the information of his invented rice variety named ‘Noor Rice-1”. From sowing seeds under the seed bed to planting seedlings and harvesting paddy, water irrigation, flowering date, pest infestation, organic fertilizers and organic pesticides application-every activities are monitored and the information are placed in the format to see the change in every steps of the cultivation of this invented rice varieties. Nonetheless, it has been observed that the period from seed sowing to ripening was 100 days under ‘Noor Rice-1’ seed bed. Besides, the rice variety becomes matured with only 4 times of irrigation where other rice varieties require 10-12 times of irrigation.
Analyzing the information about the cultivation of Noor Rice-1 through the arranged field day the farmers concluded that Noor Rice-1 is drought tolerant and suitable for cultivation in this region by checking the productivity of rice with the farmers of the area. Tanor Upazila UNO (Upazila Nirbahi Officer) Md. Billal Hossain was present as the chief guest in the field day. He inaugurated the field day activities by cutting the paddy of the research plot. Also reviewed the information about each paddy. Researcher Noor Mohammad presented all the information about the rice of the research plot in the field day. BARCIK’s official Md. Shahidul Islam, Barendra Seed Bank’s current president Md. Zayedul Islam and 60 farmers of the area were present in the event.
Rice scientist Noor Mohammad said, ‘Badhair Union of our Tanor Upazila is very drought-prone and many lands in this area remain fallow due to scarcity of water and drought. Through my work, I have tried to ensure that the farmers can use the land properly, that the fallow lands should come under cultivation.” The chief guest of the program, UNO Billal Hossain said, “The work that Noor Mohammad and BARCIK have implemented for this drought-prone area is very important. It will surely bring benefit to the farmers of this area. I hope Noor Rice-1 will be cultivated by farmers in the area on a large scale.” He added, ‘If more crops are cultivated in this area, the amount of fallow land will be reduced.” Md. Mizanur Rahman said, “This research program has been conducted on my land. I was actively associated with this work. Noor Rice-1 is more drought tolerant than other cultivars and yields 25 maunds per bigha. Therefore, we will cultivate this rice on a large scale in the future.’
On the field day, 5 local farmers collected the ‘Noor Rice-1’ for cultivation in the next season. Md. Shahidul Islam, coordinator of BARCIK said, “BARCIK always works with area-friendly development plans. We believe that these varieties developed by farmer Noor Mohammad will bring good results at the farmer level in this drought prone region. At the same time, through cultivating this drought tolerant variety farmers will be able to bring the fallow lands of the area under cultivation.’
Translated by Silvanus Lamin
