The government has released ten new rice varieties, developed by public and private entities, to boost output further in the rice cropping Boro season.
The varieties were certified and released at the 106th meeting of the National Seed Board (NSB), held at the conference room of the Ministry of Agriculture on Tuesday.
Agriculture secretary and NSB Chairman Md Sayedul Islam chaired the meeting.
Two inbreed varieties by Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI), one inbreed variety by Bangladesh Institute of Nuclear Agriculture (BINA), one by private organisation BRAC, and six hybrid varieties by different organisations were registered by NSB on the day.
Two inbreed varieties -- BRRI dhan 101, 102 -- can give 7.72 and 8.11 tonnes of paddy per hectare, respectively.
BRRI dhan 101 can prevent bacterial blight while BRRI dhan 102 is zinc enriched.
BINA dhan 25 is a finer quality variety with an average trial output of 7.64 tonnes per hectare. This variety can be harvested in 145 days.
BARC Executive Chairman Shaikh Md Bokhtiar, director-general of seeds (Ministry of Agriculture) Abdullah Sajjad, BADC chairman AFM Hayatullah, BRRI Director General Shahjahan Kabir, BINA Director-General Mirza Mofazzal Islam, and additional secretary Kamala Ranjan Das were present at the meeting.
