'HYV BRRI Dhan-33 to rid N dists of <i>monga' </i>
At least 30,000 agricultural day labourers of five districts in Rangpur region can be employed in the current monga season as harvest of high yielding rice BRRI-Dhan 33 on 5,000 acres of land has already started.
Rangpur-Dinajpur Rural Service (RDRS) Director (Livelihood) Dr Shamsuzzaman revealed the information at a meeting held at the ground of Moishamuri Primary School in Kakina union under Lalmonirhat district on the occasion of the 'Field day' observed on Thursday.
BRRI-Dhan 33, a high yielding variety that has been invented to remove monga from the northern districts, can be harvested in 90 to 100 days while harvest of Aman rice generally takes 120 to 140 days, Dr Shamsuzzaman said.
Cultivation of the rice can help create job opportunities for the agricultural day labourers in the Bengali months of Ashwin and Kartik when monga problem is severe, he said.
The RDRS director sought support from the government as well as NGOs to help all the farmers of the northern districts get the benefit of BRRI-Dhan 33.
RDRS with the help of Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute invented the high yielding variety around five years ago.
Earlier on that day, GOC of 66 Artillery Division (Rangpur Cantonment) Maj Gen Fatme Ahmed Roomy, who was chief guest at the meeting, Dr Shamsuzzaman and several other army officials observed the harvest of BRRI-Dhan 33 in the field of Abdul Awal.
“The government has taken up some steps to prevent monga and I hope they will think over BRRI-Dhan 33 to solve the problem in the region,” Maj Gen Roomy said.
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