Farmers urged to cultivate BRRI Dhan-84

Agricultural researchers and extension officials have urged the farmers to bring more lands under BRRI Dhan-84, a zinc-enriched and drought-tolerant paddy variety, in the Rajshahi region, including its vast Barind Tract, during the Boro season.

They told the grassroots farmers that the newly innovated paddy variety has opened up a door of enormous prospects of mitigating zinc and protein deficiency besides fighting diarrhoea and pneumonia-induced childhood deaths and growth stunts.

Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) released the variety for all farmers over the country last year after the latest breakthrough in research in the field. It’s a short-duration, high-yielding variety of rice which can be cultivated in season.

They made these observations while addressing a farmers’ field day on production and improved technology expansion of the zinc-enriched BRRI dhan-84 at Daingpara village under Paba upazila in the district today.

World Vision Bangladesh and the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) jointly hosted the field day with the main thrust of disseminating ideas among the grassroots farmers on how to boost the production of the paddy variety.

DAE Deputy Director Mozder Hossain, Upazila Agriculture Officer Shafiqul Islam, and World Vision Senior Manager Sebastian Purification addressed the meeting.

The meeting was told that the BRRI Dhan-84 is a zinc-fortified breed and has been developed to meet the necessary requirement of micronutrients for the human body coupled with ensuring food security.

Each kilogramme of rice of BRRI Dhan-84 contained 19 mg of zinc and 9 percent of protein which will ensure high nutrition and will play a significant role in preventing various diseases; Zinc also played a vital role in the prevention of liver-related diseases.

Zinc, iron, and vitamin-A are the three most vital micronutrients, a deficiency in these hampers children’s natural growth and decreases their disease prevention capacity.

In Bangladesh, over 40 percent of children under five are stunted while an estimated 44 percent of children of the same age group are at risk of zinc deficiency.

Agriculturist Mozder Hossain said the variety is the world’s first-ever rice class developed in a bio-fortified system through breeding between local rice varieties Zira Katari and BRRI Dhan-39.

It’s a short duration rice variety that can be harvested 100 days after plantation and this variety may give yield up to 4.5 to 6 tonnes per hectare if nurtured properly, he added.