Impacts of direct-seeded and early-maturing varieties of rice on mitigating seasonal hunger for farming communities in northwest Bangladesh

Abstract

We assessed the impact of combining direct-seeded rice (DSR) and early-maturing varieties (EMVs) on productivity, costs, income and agricultural employment of farmers in two hunger-prone districts of northwest Bangladesh. Analysis included descriptive statistics, comparison of means and regression. The combination of DSR and EMV has a significant positive effect on the income of farmers by US$625 per ha from aman (wet) to boro (dry) seasons. The main reasons for the increase in income were a higher rice yield (US$669 kg/ha) and a reduction in costs (US$44 per ha) due to less labour required in crop establishment in the aman season and a higher yield and income for boro crops. Farmers were able to plant their boro crops earlier and sell their crops at a time when the supply in the market was low and prices were higher. For agricultural labourers, the early aman harvest generates more labour demand (19% in Rangpur and 22% in Nilphamari), with the assumption that 5% of the total rice area was planted using both DSR and EMVs. Direct-seeding and shorter duration rice varieties therefore enable farmers to obtain a higher yield and income while allowing agricultural workers to earn money in the monga months and ensuring efficient use of limited resources for sustainable agricultural production.

Keywords:

• direct-seeded rice
• early-maturing varieties
• monga mitigation

Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge the assistance of the staff of Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) in Rangpur. We extend our gratitude to Dr Grant Singleton and Dr Bill Hardy for reviewing the paper. We also extend our thanks to Ms Trina Leah Mendoza and Rica Joy Flor of the Irrigated Rice Research Consortium for their valuable comments. We would like to thank Ms Nel Garcia of Geographic Information Systems, IRRI, for creating the map.

Funding

This work was supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and Natural Resources Institute (NRI).