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Searching for national food security

Can hybrid seeds help?

Mantasha Ahmed
MD. Jahangir, a farmer in Amtali in the district of Barguna, was happily demonstrating to his peers how to use a Leaf Color Chart to determine when the plant needs urea fertilizer and how much to use -- "When the color of the paddy matches the dark green shade on the card, you know your crop is healthy and there is no need for fertiliser" --Jahangir tells them proudly, pointing at his newly harvested paddy. In a visit to Barisal and surrounding Sidr affected areas last week, a team of BRAC officials met with farmers who were covered under its ongoing Agriculture Rehabilitation Programme. As part of the programme, farmers whose crops were destroyed, received High Yielding Variety (HYV) seeds of rice, maize and vegetables, developed by BRAC's Agriculture Research Unit. The main purpose of this visit was to assess the farmers' response to this programme, particularly the performance of Aloron, the new hybrid Aus rice, seeds of which were distributed among the farmers in March --April this year, for cultivation in the Aus season. As compared to traditional Aus rice, Aloron has more than three times the yield.
The traditional Aus rice has predominantly been the main crop in the area and the farmers did not have prior experience of growing hybrid variety crops. Some farmers and community members were even skeptical about the yield of the new hybrid crop primarily for three reasons: irrigation problems, salinity of water and land tenure. These farmers largely rely on water flowing through canals for irrigation and they argued that dry season crops may not sustain. There is also a pQf£eption that the modern hybrid variety of rice is not saline resistant and in order to grow them,
better irrigation technique, adequate manure and other agricultural inputs would be required. And most farmers were not ready to make that kind of investment right after their crops were damaged in the cyclone. As the land is very fertile along the coast, traditional crops, though low yield, grow without much investment and effort from the farmers. So most absentee land owners rent out their lands to local poor farmers who cannot afford to put in cash but can give physical labour for tenancy cultivation under crop sharing arrangements -- the tenant keeps one-third of the crops, while two-thirds go to the land owner.
These issues were taken into consideration while implementing the said Agriculture given to the fanners for free, and in order to cope with the obstacles, BRAC distributed power pump for irrigation, free fertiliser, power tillers for tillage, followed by hands-on training. The bumper yield of crops and vegetables in the last dry season in the area has changed their perception. During the team's visit to several harvest locations last week in Barguna, Patuakhali and Bagerhat, the farmers expressed their feelings about the yield of Aloron: "I am very happy with the yield of Aloron this year. Had we followed BRAC's instructions properly on irrigation and crop management -- when to use insecticides and how much fertiliser to use the yield would have been even better. But I am very hopeful about the next harvest" says Ohab. Howladar, a poor former. Both BRAC and government officials and the farmers were also content with the yield (9.0 ton per ha yield was demonstrated compared to 3 ton for a locally improved variety) and very confident and optimistic about future harvests of new and improved hybrid rice and other seeds in the region. Farmers in
surrounding areas were given maize seeds and Boro seedlings among other seeds, in the previous season (December 07 / January 08 -March/April 08) and these crops also had a high yield.
After Sidr hit the coastal belt of Bangladesh, 10-12 percent of the country's crops were destroyed and as a result, the threat of food insecurity became imminent. This has been a grave national concern since then, and the government called for immediate action to address the problem. BRAC, one of the leading development organizations in the world, also one of the active participants in instant relief work, designed programmes in agriculture, as one of its many rehabilitation programmes, tailored to meet the needs of poor affected farmers.
Initially, The Agriculture Rehabilitation Programme was implemented in the four most affected Upazilas -- Morolgonj, Mothbaria, Betagi and Kolapara. The programme expanded rapidly within a very short span of time for immediate recovery of livelihood, and is currently being implemented in 30 Upazilas. Since December 07, the quantity of crops and vegetables grown under this programme has been 0.18 million MT. If we add this figure to the target of 0.63 million MT till December 2009 (0.81 million MT), the recovery rate would be 37.67 percent of the loss. Farmers who had a high yield of maize in the previous season showed great interest in growing it again next year. These farmers are mainly using this maize to make flour and have been happily eating bread made of iL Thus, if their food habit gradually changes, it will surely reduce consumption of rice, and in the long run, may contribute greatly to national food security.
The writer is a senior PR and Communications. Officer at BRAC