Black Rice comes to plainland

Locally known as Black Rice, a native variety of rice so long home to the Chittagong Hill Tracts region, has begun to travel to the plainlands with its majestic splendor.  Also branded as Emperor’s Rice, the variety is rich in nutrition and has already succeeded in pleasing the palate of the consumers, thereby fast gaining popularity among the farmers, as it fetches good price for them as well. A report in this daily on Monday says that a kilo of this variety costs Tk.150 to 220 while a kilo of Boro cots Tk.50 to 55 only. Thus, it clearly establishes its class in the world of rice.

 Some enthusiastic farmers of Cumilla had planted the seeds on an experimental basis in 2016-17 and were happy with the yield they received. Soon they cultivated the variety on about 50 acres of land and got about 220 tonnes of rice.

We are told that the farmers of Cumilla now plan to bring 100 acres of land under the production of black rice as production cost is similar to that of boro rice but the yield is much more. It is only natural that farmers will prefer to grow a variety that gives them more profit with equal amounts of cost of production and physical labour. Good news is, small farmers in other plainlands have also started to grow black rice as they find it quite a profitable endeavor.

A Department of Agriculture Extension (DEA) report gives details of how farmers in Bandarban, Khagrachhari and Rangamati cultivated this variety extensively on 200 acres of land and saw the face of profit.

But there are snags in the process from sowing seeds to marketing finished products that need to be addressed by agriculture experts. It has been reported that farmers get only about 80 tonnes of rice from 200 tonnes of paddy, mostly the loss taking place during the time of husking following traditional methods. It is indeed a problem that needs to be looked into by experts.

Farmers have appealed to the government officials concerned to provide them with technical support in this regard. As the demand for black rice is growing the relevant department should come forward with technical know-how to support the farmers.

Rice remains the staple food of the people of Bangladesh of all creeds and class. Credit must be given to our rice experts who have worked round the year in laboratories to come up with new varieties of rice; how to increase yield; how to enrich them with vitamins and minerals and so on. As a result, we have got zinc fortified rice, salt water-tolerant rice and many other varieties to feed the nearly 17 crore people of the land. While the population has increased almost three-fold in the last 50 years, rice experts have found ways to feed this huge population with home grown rice.

The introduction of the Black Rice from CHT to the plainlands is a praiseworthy step as it would not only make the variety popular among the consumers, it would at the same time help conserve the variety from going into extinction. Many rice varieties have gone into oblivion as there was no attempt to conserve them with proper care. We are happy to note that city consumers have started to appreciate the Black Rice variety and are ready to buy it despite the relatively high price.