The government is putting emphasis on the cultivation of early ripening varieties of paddy to reduce risks of flood damage and ensure an adequate supply of the popular grain, according to Agriculture Minister Muhammad Abdur Razzaque.

"A sufficient amount of paddy is cultivated in the country's haors but this is very risky as these areas are prone to flooding at times," he said.

"So, we are working to reduce this risk by emphasising on cultivating varieties of paddy that ripen within 15 to 20 days," the minister added.

Razzaque made these comments while speaking as chief guest at a Boro Paddy Harvest Festival in Mithamain upazila of Kishoreganj.

To ensure quick harvests this season, the government is also providing combine harvesters and reapers to farmers in haor areas on a priority basis.

The agriculture minister inaugurated the paddy harvesting programme and distributed combine harvesters and reapers among farmers.

Since boro paddy is the only crop that is grown on vast amounts of haor lands every year, its productivity needs to be increased, Razzaque told the farmers.

"Our scientists have already developed high yielding varieties of rice such as Brridhan 89 and 92 and we will give you these improved varieties of hybrid rice seeds for cultivation," he added.

Razzaque went on to say that the government provides 70 per cent subsidy on combine harvesters, reapers and other farm implements to reduce the cost of production and speed up agricultural mechanisation in the country.

This year, boro paddy was cultivated on 166,950 hectares of land, of which 102,500 hectares was in haor areas of Kishoreganj.

As of, April 24, 53 per cent of the paddy in haor areas had been harvested while it was 39 per cent in non-haor areas.

 A target has been set to produce 7,11,580 tonnes of rice in the district this year.