A passion for home-grown science

To see deep green paddy as it sways to a gentle breeze is anybody's delight. The paddy fields of Aruni Mondal, 42, from Gangarampur village in Khulna's Batiaghata upazila are no less picturesque. But this farmer finds in his fields another type of beauty: the beauty of science. He has no academic qualifications or journal publications to show, yet when it comes to developing rice plant hybrids, always-inquisitive Aruni is a long-term enthusiast. He's a scientist of that most natural kind.

 “My father used to send me to plough the fields,” says Aruni, who in addition to being a farmer works as a day labourer. “He grew different rice varieties. My curiosity for paddy stems from my boyhood.” Aruni dropped out of high school to tend the farm full-time. Friends and neighbours knew of his interest to cross-breed rice strains. They shared what knowledge they had.

 “Then in 2010, local non-government organisation LOCOS, which has as one of its goals the preservation of native seeds,” Aruni recalls, “chose me to attend a three-day workshop in Pirojpur led by a Filipino expert, on rice hybridisation. With some practical knowledge in hand I decided to dedicate my life to this activity.”

Aruni's dream is to create a high-yield climate-adaptable paddy for farmers like him that can reduce poverty. Since 2010, on his modest landholdings he has been experimenting, drawing on ten plants each of two local varieties, namely the Shaheb Kochi and Kanchra strains of Aman paddy, as 'mother' and 'father' donors for his hybrid. He believes these varieties have a lot to offer the Khulna region due to their tolerance for saline soils. He also hopes his hybrid will be fast growing. “To create a new variety takes at a minimum eight years,” he says.

To ask Aruni to describe the process is to open the floodgates of a broad passion. “What about pollination?” he poses. “It has to be done with care. At the time of flowering pollen samples from the father variety might optimally be taken in the afternoon, but the prime time for pollinating the mother variety might be in the morning hours.” He also needs to emasculate the chosen mother flower by removing its stamens such that it cannot self-pollinate.

With the work on seven generations of paddy already completed, Aruni is currently on the eighth and final stage. When this season's cross-pollination is done, he will have created his new strain. “At stage seven I observed that this new variety has high productivity and fast growth, as well as climate endurance qualities” the farmer-scientist says. “I have high hopes for it.”

 “It's true that the main agro-scientists in our country are the farmers,” says Dr Monirul Islam Ripon, an agriculture  technology professor at Khulna University. “What Aruni is doing is cross-breeding, and he's on the right track. But he has to maintain the characteristics of the new variety, and to prove them clearly if he wishes to submit it to the National Seed Board for recognition. It's a long process. After eight years we call it a 'pure line'. It will take ten to twelve years to create what we call a 'regional line'. Finally the new hybrid is tested for its suitability for widespread cultivation.”

Aruni likewise thinks farmers are true scientists. “Farmers need to experiment with new ideas in their work lives,” he explains. “They need to keenly observe their surroundings and engage in growing their crops with enthusiasm. Farmers are the ones who spend all day with their crops. They should be aware if a new variety is desirable, if cross-breeding is suitable.”

 “And beyond that,” he continues philosophically, “every man has his inclination for creativity. He'd best nurture it, for the benefit of humankind.”