Rice bred in Nepal is a hit with farmers in the Bangladesh lowlands. Validated RNRRS Output.

Abstract

This is one of 280 summaries describing key outputs from the projects run by DFID's 10-year Renewable Natural Resources Research Strategy (RNRRS) programmes.

Principally based on Projects R8269, R7122, and R8071. Rice varieties bred in the Nepal lowlands and introduced to farmers in similar environments in the High Barind Tract of Bangladesh are spreading rapidly. Stagnant yields of rice in the Barind mean that incomes of resource-poor farmers are falling. But big increases in quantity and quality, and early ripening varieties that allow a follow-on cash crop, could improve lives. Farmers managed the trials of the Nepalese rice themselves. They found the new varieties both yielded more and matured earlier. In less than two years, two-thirds of the farmers were growing the new varieties. And nearly half share seed with other farmers. Development organisations are promoting them and villages are already organising community-based seed production.

The CD has the following information for this output: Description, Validation, Current Situation, Current Promotion, Impacts On Poverty, Environmental Impact. Attached PDF (20 pp.) taken from the CD.

Citation

PSP12, New technologies, new processes, new policies: tried-and-tested and ready-to-use results from DFID-funded research, Research Into Use Programme, Aylesford, Kent, UK, ISBN 978-0-9552595-6-2, p 31.

Published 1 January 2007