November 29, 2011
Source: IRRI
A field day was held for participatory evaluation by farmers of salt-tolerant aman rice varieties at Khulna District (Bangladesh) on 24 November 2011.
One hundred forty-three participants from the villages of Gnngarampur, local government representatives, and staff members of the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA)-Khulna Hub attended.
Participants casted their votes for the best and the worst varieties according to their own preference. Most farmers chose the variety BRRI dhan41 as the best. It has similar characteristics to one that the farmers’ currently use, BR23, and the farmers hoped they would get higher yield with BRRI dhan41.
The farmers said BRRI dhan41 should be tested in medium lowland and lowland in larger plots. Some farmers added that BRRI dhan41 could allow them to sow sesame and mungbean on time and avoid waterlogging from the early showers pre-monsoon.
Isabul Golder, one of the participating farmers, reported that the early harvest of another variety, BRRI dhan 49, in his field helped him to bring his field in condition 10 days earlier than BR23 last year.
The event was organized by the CSISA-Bangladesh project, in collaboration with Bangladesh Rice Research Institute, Bangladesh Institute of Nuclear Agriculture, and the Directorate of Agriculture Extension (DAE) at Katianangla Village.
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