6.2m hectares of land needed to sustain rice production

Bangladesh must retain at least 6.2 million hectares of paddy land to sustain its current level of rice production, said Md Rafiqul Islam, director for research at the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI).

At present, the area under paddy cultivation stands at about 11.7 million hectares, he added.

He made the remark while formally inaugurating BRRI's 24/7 call centre service today at the institute's office in Gazipur.

The service aims to provide farmers with continuous advice on fertiliser management, weed control, pest management, and irrigation.

By calling 09644300300, farmers will be able to get solutions to all their queries directly from BRRI scientists, he said.

Islam also said that in 1971, the per capita landholding in Bangladesh was 20 percent, which has now dropped to just 10 percent. During this period, the population has increased 2.5 times, but food production has grown fourfold, he mentioned.

Read more

Can Bangladesh feed its projected 22 crore population by 2050?

He pointed out that around 25 percent of the country's land still remains fallow and must be brought under cultivation.

In response to a question, he said BRRI developed only 37 rice varieties between 1971 and 1990 in its first phase, while in the second phase, from 1991 to 2024, it developed 84 varieties.

"We are now focusing on developing rice varieties enriched with zinc, iron, and other nutrients.

Additionally, we have preserved 9,600 indigenous rice varieties, which we are using as research material," he said.

Mohammad Khalequzzaman, director general of BRRI, said farmers are increasingly facing losses in rice cultivation due to adverse weather conditions.

The call centre has been launched to guide them on how to overcome such challenges, he said.

He added that BRRI has developed 121 rice varieties since 1970, including eight hybrid ones.

"Thanks to the dissemination of BRRI-developed varieties and technologies at the grassroots level, Bangladesh is now the third-largest rice producer in the world," he added.