Rice – where science is the solution
12.18.11
Abdul Bayes
There is little shade of doubt that Bangladesh has made commendable progress in food grain production, especially rice. The total rice production reached 32 million tonnes in 2009/10 as compared to 25 million tonnes just five years back. Since Independence, production of rice tripled and the growth rate of rice outpaced the population growth rate during the same period of time. Taking into account wheat and maize, the total food grain production perked at 34 million tonnes in 2009/10. Needless to mention perhaps that the shinning success has come through the adoption of modern high yielding varieties (HYVs) with an yield level roughly three times the traditional varieties (TVs).
The advancement of science in the region of rice produced spectacular results in many countries, such as Bangladesh, where the specter of famine haunted every moment. With the help of mechanized irrigation, modern varieties are now spread over four-fifth of the cultivated land. Initially, this expensive package was led by the large and the medium land owners; small and marginal farmers remained as laggards. But at the moment, more than 80 per cent of the small and marginal farmers have learnt to adopt this to fight against poverty.
The leading institution for rice research in our country is Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) that has released a number of varities suitable to different production conditions. Despite remarkable success in the past, however, a dark cloud loomed large on the horizon of our happiness as a sizeable part of Bangladesh, known as drought and saline-prone areas, suffered due to the lack of scientific advancement suited to their ecology. As such, poverty level in these areas stood very high. As we can recollect, the infamous “monga” or “mora Kartik”, now almost on the wane in greater Rangpur District, used to steal newspaper headlines for its ferocity in terms of famine and hunger.
The scientists of the BRRI, with technical assistance from IRRI, is reported to have released three HYVs named BRRI dhan-55, BRRI dhan-56 and BRRI dhan-57. The first variety is a moderate salinity and cold-tolerant variety with an yield rate of 7.0 tonnes per hectare. This is higher than the most widely accepted HYV BRRI-dhan 28. Since the variety is tolerant of salinity and cold, it is suitable for production in the salinity-prone south and the cold-hit north. On the other hand, BRRI dhan-56 and BRRI dhan-57 are drought resistant varieties – a medicine for the smonga-hit regions. Farmers can now expect better harvest as the wet season ends and water becomes scarce. Specially BRRI dhan-56 can withstand rainless days up to one month and the grain matures in 107 and 110 days during Aman season even when the water table depth goes down to 70-80 cm. BRRI dhan-57 can withstand drought for up to three weeks but the grain matures even earlier – in 100 to 105 days. “This means jute farmers can go for late Aman production with this variety while potato growers can think of reaping the paddy quickly and free the land for winter vegetable prior to cultivation of the next boro rice”, a report in a national English daily said. We congratulate both BRRI and IRRI for developing varieties of paddy that would go a long way in mitigating the miseries of the farmers in southern and northern Bangladesh.
In this context, we can submit few important points to ponder with. First, science is the solution to our food crisis. As arable land is going down by 1.2 per cent per annum and 2.0 million people are joining the titanic total of more than 150 million each year, the only way to move forward is to cover the whole country with modern varieties of rice. It also means going for hybrid rice after taking due cognizance of the costs, tastes etc. Second, international collaboration in scientific advancement and technology borrowing could help a resource poor country to grapple with the issue of food security. Third, seeing the successes made by our scientists in developing newer varieties of rice, the government should devote more resources to agricultural research and extension services. In fact, development of research and extension services in rice could turn out to be the “real subsidy” for farmers than financial subsidy provided at the cost of devastating distortions and inequality.
Finally, time has come to shift the emphasis from ground water irrigation to surface water irrigation as, allegedly, water table is going down further with competing withdrawal of underground water. This means, we should provide more importance to the southern belt which is apparently the center of surface water irrigation. But mere irrigation will not suffice; salinity tolerant varieties – as has recently been released — must make a mark in those areas.
By and large, Bangladesh’s breakthrough in addressing the issues of food insecurity in the past, albeit a bleaker one, came on the heels of the development of a series of modern varieties of paddy. The coming years, and the ecologically diverse zones should witness high yielding varieties at a rapid pace. Only an earnest endeavour to scientific advancement in the field of rice research could provide farmers with the last laugh. And let the developments expand to other crops such as wheat, maize etc. For Bangladesh science is security.
The writer is a Professor of Economics at Jahangirnagar University. He can be reached at email: abdulbayes@yahoo.com
http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/more.php?news_id=152446&date=2011-10-11
