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Hybrid rice cultivation doubles this year

Farmers to be dependent on market for seeds:Environmentalists

Sohel Parvez
Hybrid rice cultivation has almost doubled this year amid hectic efforts from government and seed suppliers to motivate farmers for growing more rice to ensure food security.
According to official sources, the lands that have been brought under the cultivation of hybrid rice are more than 150 percent over the lands cultivated the previous season. The lands cultivable for such rice this boro season are over 10 lakh hectares, which were 3.90 lakh hectares the previous season.
However private seed growers and suppliers contradicted the government figure saying that the cultivable land for hybrid seeds would not be over 7 lakh hectares this season.
They made the estimation in accordance with the sales of hybrid rice seeds. They said they sold around 8,000-9,000 tonnes of such seeds.
The sellers said about 15 kg of seeds are required for cultivation on a hectare of land.
Meanwhile, environmentalists are opposed to bringing more lands under hybrid seeds cultivation on the plea that this move would make farmers dependant on the market for seeds.
“The demand for hybrid seeds is growing every year. We have sold some 8,000-9,000 tonnes of seed this year. It is almost double the last year's total sales," said FR Malik, president of Bangladesh Seed Growers, Dealers & Merchants Association.
Malik, also the owner of Mollika Seed Company, said they sold 4,500-5.000 tonnes of hybrid rice seeds in the last boro season.
At present, growers and importers are marketing various types of hybrid rice seeds such as Hira, Aloron. Jagoron,
Sonar Bangla and Moina, which are said to be about 20-30 percent higher yielding than the high yielding variety (HYV) of rice seeds.
The government initiated the move to encourage farmers to grow hybrid rice after the twin flood and cyclone Sidr damaged country's main food item rice in the Aman season.
The soaring prices of rice in the global market have also prompted the government to motivate farmers to produce more hybrids to narrow the risk of food insecurity.
“Necessity knows no law. We have focused on the increased cultivation of hybrid rice to recover the losses incurred on floods and cyclone Sidr,” said Dr Shahidul Islam, director Field Service Wing of the Department of Agricultural Extension.
To recover such losses, the government targeted to produce hybrid crops on 12 lakh hectares of land out of 45 lakh hectares, the total targeted area for boro cultivation.
Out of the total land, hybrid rice has been cultivated on over 10 lakh hectares of land, Dr Islam said.
The DAE official expected this cultivation would help produce additional 10 lakh tonnes of rice.
"Its demand is rising because farmers arc getting higher profits," said Mokfor Uddin, managing director of die biggest seed supplier firm, Supreme Seed Company. Supreme has sold about 3,500 tonnes of hybrid seeds.
Sudhir Chandra Nath of Agro-markcting Division of BRAC that grows hybrid seeds, said farmers are now encouraged by hybrid seeds' higher yield..
"Cultivation of hybrid rice requires the same extent of fertiliser, pesticides and irrigation as needed for the cultlva-
tion of HYV crops. But it gives higher yield than the HYV,” he said, adding that BRAC's continued motivational campaign has also encouraged farmers to grow hybrid.
Farida Akhter of Nayakrishi
Andolon, which works for ecological agriculture, said it would increase farmers' vulnerability to market.
"Wc oppose the hybrid because it makes farmers dependent on the market and
discourages them to preserve seeds for cultivation in the next season," Farida said, “It's a laboratory based seed, not the seeds from a farmer's own field.”
She also pointed to the fact
that increased cultivation of hybrid seeds that requires increased use of fertilieer and pesticides will affect the land fertility and biodiversitx
sohel@thedailystar ret