Farmers not willing to grow hybrid rice [ Tritiyo Matra News ]

Farmers not willing to grow hybrid rice

Local July 23, 2015

The ministry of agriculture is pushing the cultivation of hybrid rice on reluctant farmers.
Farmers said they were not interested to grow hybrid rice due to its higher production cost and the lower price they get for the produce.
Officials said there was no alternative to hybrid rice cultivation for increasing production to feed the growing population.
Farmers said that the production cost of hybrid rice was 10 to 15 per cent higher than the other available varieties.
They said that as the consumers don’t like hybrid rice its price was lower than the other available varieties.
Department of Agricultural Extension officials said it requires more fertilizers, irrigation and pesticides to grow hybrid rice.
The farmers have to hire more workers to grow hybrid rice needing special care, they said.
All these factors require the farmers to spend more for growing hybrid rice, they said.
The higher price of seeds which must be bought from the seed companies every year is a big discouraging
factor, said the officials.
Jandu Miah, a sharecropper at Dubipather village, Bajitpur, Kishoregonj said that he grew hybrid rice on 35 decimal of land in the last boro season and harvested about 800 kg of un-husked rice.
Though the production was good, he said he found it difficult to sell the produce as none likes to buy it.
He said that he had to sell his hybrid rice at much lower price than the usual varieties.
He said that he would not grow hybrid rice again.
DAE deputy director Nirmal Kumar Saha who was recently transferred to Dhaka from Kishoreganj told New Age that a good number of farmers grew hybrid rice in Kishoregonj but they had to sell the produce at low price due to lack of demand in the market.
Agriculture ministry additional secretary Anwar Faruque identified farmers’ ignorance about cultivation techniques, lack of demand for hybrid rice and its low price as the main obstacles for expanding its acreage.
He told New Age that the consumers and the millers don’t like to buy hybrid rice.
Anwar Faruque who also heads agriculture ministry’s seed wing as its director general said that about 10,000 tonnes of hybrid rice seeds were planted in Bangladesh each year.
He said that 70 to 80 varieties of hybrid rice were planted on about seven lakh hectares of land.
Senior agronomist and former director of Krishi Gobeshona Foundation Abdul Hamid said that there was no justification to push farmers to grow hybrid rice incurring severe losses.
DAE officials said that hybrid rice was vulnerable to many diseases and even a single pest attack could destroy standing hybrid rice crop on thousand hectares.
DAE promotes hybrid rice cultivation in boro, aus and aman seasons following directives from the agriculture ministry, the officials said.
The objective is to increase production, they said.
According to DAE statistics, the country’s hybrid acreage in the boro season increased to 7.53 lakh hectares in 2014-15 from 6.14 lakh hectares in 2012-13.
Aman season’s hybrid rice acreage increased to 51,000 hectares in 2014-15 from 23,000 hectares in 2013-14.
Aus season’s hybrid rice acreage increased to 50,000 hectares from 31,000 hectares during the same period.
DAE additional director Rafiqul Hasan said that the government attached importance to hybrid rice cultivation to increase production.
He called it a good sign that many local seed companies began breeding hybrid rice seeds.
DAE field service wing additional director for monitoring Chaitanya Kumar Das described hybrid rice cultivation as a new technology requiring extra care.
He said that hybrid rice was not harmful for health.