The government released five new Aman paddy varieties along with two that can tolerate environmental stress.

The government aims to boost the country’s rice production through these. Of the varieties, Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) has developed four and Bangladesh Institute of Nuclear Agriculture (BINA) developed the other one.

The BRRI varieties bear different specialties including saline-tolerance, drought- tolerance, aromatics and zinc-enriched qualities.

Initially named BRRI 70, 71, 72 and 73,the naming of the varieties has been postponed till getting the response of the Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury as there are some issues regarding the name ‘71’ for a paddy variety, said the institute’s Director General Jibon Krishna Biswas.

In addition to these new varieties, Bangladesh has already developed seven more saline-tolerant, three drought-tolerant and two submergence-tolerant paddy varieties.

Anwar Faruk, the additional secretary of the Agriculture Ministry mentioned that the apart from high tolerance and specific specialties, the varieties are high yielding as well.

Of the new varieties, the BINA Dhan 17 is able to produce seven tonnes of Aman paddy per hectare, which is the highest so far. Average Aman paddy production rate is 3.5 tonnes per hectare.

And all the newly introduced Aman varieties have the average production capacity of 5 to 5.5 tonnes per hectares.

Since the country’s independence, the government-owned research institutes have invented 83 rice varieties. Of them, BRRI has introduced 66 varieties and BINA has introduced 17 varieties. Of the total rice varieties, BRRI introduced 33 Aman and BINA released 13 Aman varieties.