Following last year's successful cultivation of high yielding Purple paddy during the Borto season, the agriculture department in Sundarganj upazila under the district has started plantation of its seedlings to see the production ratio in the ongoing Aman season.

Cultivation of vitamin-enriched purple paddy, locally known as 'Beguni Dhan', started in Gaibandha for the first time last year, said Rashedul Islam, upazila agriculture officer (UAO) of Sundarganj.

Dulali Begum, member of IPM Farmer's Club of Ramjibon village, brought a few grams of the paddy seeds from her relative in Gazipur district early 2017 and planted it on 25 decimals of land as per instruction of upazila agriculture department in the last Boro season.

She got 25 maunds of yield per bigha whereas Boro produces 18 to 20 maunds per bigha.

Five-bigha demonstration plots are being made with seedlings of Purple paddy at different locations and it has created much curiosity among local farmers, said the UAO of Sundarganj.

The Purple paddy plants develop 90 centimetres long and have 20 to 28 spikes. Each spike contains 200 to 313 corns, whereas HYV Boro plants possess 180 to 190 corns in each spike.

It needed 140 days to harvest, and the harvested paddy of Boro season was preserved as seed for farming in more areas next time, he said.

“According to agriculture experts, China-origin purple paddy contains high amount of vitamins and fibre. We have sent the sample of the Purple paddy grown in Sundarganj to a rice research laboratory for further research,” said the agriculture officer.

“Following last year's success in Purple paddy farming in Boro season, we are now experimenting on its cultivation in the Aman season to see the production ratio of the new paddy with Aman. We have made demonstration plots accordingly,” he added.