A smile on rice farmer Omia’s face

SRI brought smile on Mst. Omia Begum’s face

Rice is the largest cultivated crop in Bangladesh and nationwide farmers are using more land to grow rice than any other crop. However, in the past years’ more and more farmers shifted from rice cultivation to other crops due to low harvests and high cost for inputs. Most farmers blame changes in climate in recent years. Some farmers believe that their traditional methods are to blame and Ms. Omia of Chengtimari village, Parramrampur Union (Dewangonj Upazilla) is one of them. The winter of 2012-2013 made a difference for her when she, for the first time, used SRI[1] practices to cultivate rice. 

Omia joined the Cross-border project in 2012 when Field Facilitator Md. Fazlur Rahman from the NGO Dhaka Ahsania Mission visited their village in Dewangang and established a farmer group for field crops. As a member of the field crop group she received from the local service provider training in the different practices of SRI. To apply it on her own field, she received 2kg of rice seed of a high yielding short duration variety (BR 29) and a small amount of working capital (BDT1100[2]) to pay for other inputs. Together with other members of her group Omia decided to implement SRI in her rice field: “The beauty of SRI is that cultivation costs are less but the rice production is higher than with our traditional method as SRI increases crop yields using less land, irrigation and fertilizer."

In May 2013, Omia and her husband Toybor Hossain harvested 360kg of rice. This is 80 kg more than past seasons when they only harvested about 280 kg from the same 0.1 acre plot. They prepared a seedbed on a small plot (0.02 acres), sowing 2kg of paddy seed. The seedling grew very fast and looked healthy. Omia gave half of the seedlings to her brother in law as she had too many seedlings for her plot of land. The couple harvested 360kg rice, worth BDT 6300 (BDT18/kg) and spend BDT3218 on cultivation. They also harvested rice straw worth BDT600 which they kept to feed their livestock.

“In this area farmers are struggling with low yields. It takes time to change the farmers’ mind-set to experiment with SRI. The project contribution of a different variety of seeds and some working capital helps farmers to try out SRI practices as it reduces the risk to invest their own money.” said Field Facilitator Fazlur Rahman.

In the past decades farmers of Parramrampur Union and in general farmers in Jamalpur district, have seen a range of extreme weather conditions, which changed cropping pattern they were used to follow for ages. The Cross-border TATI&MD project is working in Jamalpur district to ensure food security by transferring agricultural technologies which are already in practice in different areas in Bangladesh and India. “Through local service providers, also new ways to reduce crop losses to pests and diseases are transferred to farmers. The project promotes SRI practices and hopes that it will help small farmers to increase their yields and bring back some of the glorious past of rice" said Nitay Chandra Ray, Area Coordinator, Dewangonj.

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[1] System of Rice Intensification

[2] 1 USD= BDT 80