HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation-Bangladesh promoting early varieties rice in haor areas

During the end of Choitra and Baishakh (March-April) almost every year, they suffer much and remain worried because of early flooding. Boro paddy is their only crop, so they need early varieties of paddy, which can be harvested successfully before major natural calamities like hailstorms and floods. HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation-Bangladesh is working for promotion of early rice varieties in haor areas in collaboration with Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI), BADC and Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) since 2005. A significant level of progress has been made for promoting this varieties. In 2010 early rice varieties are produced and marketed by BADC and in 2011 these varieties are available in BADC, Sunamganj. It was a joyful day for about 2,000 farmers from the upazilas of Derai and Shulla. The farmers organized a function on crop field under the open sky in a festive mood at the remote village of Faridpur in the Sullla upazila under the Sunamganj district on 09 April 2012. BRRI Dhan-45 and BRRI Dhan-28, released by the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) are suitable for cultivation since these can be harvested much ahead of the Boro season in low-lying regions such as the Sunamganj district, which is prone to early flooding almost every year. Agricultural Innovations for Eliminating Extreme Poverty (AIEEP) project under EEP-Shiree programme involved bottom 10% of extreme poor for popularizing these varieties. This in turn helps expansion of planting and harvesting time of boro rice resulting increase employment of poor and extreme poor. On 15th April 2012 District level NGO coordination meeting (where all NGO representatives at Sunamganj were present) and District Development coordination meeting (where all Govt. departments heads at district level, all UNOs and all Upazila chairmen were present), the Deputy Commisioner (DC), Sunamganj invited HELVETS Swiss Intrcooperation to show TV news on early rice verities. After the show DC, Sunamganj encouraged all the participants to work for promoting these early rice varieties in order to reduce the early flash flood damage as well as addressing poverty in haor areas. After showing different TV news clips at Please Read the related news on news paper: The Daily Star (5 May 2012): http://www.thedailystar.net/starinsight/2012/05/01/behind.htm The Daily Star (13 April 2012) http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=230114 The Daily Ittefaq (19 April 2012) http://new.ittefaq.com.bd/news/view/90845/2012-04-19/10 The Sylhet Surma (19 April 2012) http://www.sylhetsurma.com/firstpage/4761-2012-04-22-22-54-04 The Sylhet Surma (10 April 2012) http://www.sylhetsurma.com/lastpage/4130-2012-04-09-22-05-43 Flood Effects for traditional verities in 2012 The Daily Ittefaq (04 May 2012) http://new.ittefaq.com.bd/news/view/94135/2012-05-04/2 The Sylhet Surma (06 May 2012) http://www.sylhetsurma.com/firstpage/5390-2012-05-05-22-26-40 The Daily Sylhet (03 May 2012) http://www.dailysylhet.com/index.php/sunamgonj/2692-2012-05-03-09-54-55 The Daily Sylhet (06 May 2012): http://www.dailysylhet.com/index.php/sunamgonj/2859-2012-05-06-12-53-55