BRRI introduces 3 new rice varieties

Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) has developed three varieties of highbreed rice for the cultivation in Aman and Boro seasons. These are the premium quality of Ropa Aman BRRI Rice-90, variety of Bona Aman, BRRI Rice-91 and cost effective varieties of Boro season, BRRI Rice-92.

The average yield of BRRI Rice-90 is 5 tonnes per hectare. Its yield is 1 to 1.4 tonnes more per hectare than of BRRI Rice-34, one of the popular varieties of the Aman season.

Incidentally, Aman rice is planted in mid July while it is harvested between mid November and mid December.

Average yield of BRRI Rice-91 per hectare is 2.37 tonnes, which is 1.5 tonnes more than that of the local variety, Fhulkori rice. And the average yield of BRRI Rice-92 is 8.3 tonnes per hectare.

The varieties were approved for cultivation in the National Seed Board meeting presided by agriculture ministry secretary Md Nasiruzzaman.  

BRRI director general Shahjahan Kabir and scientists hope, the new varieties will be popular at three farmers’ level boosting the overall rice production.

BRRI scientists said, BRRI Rice-90 has all the properties of latest high yielding rice. It is rich in high protein and it has the similar granular shape and slight aroma like BRRI Rice-34. The amount of amylose in this rice is 23.3 per cent and protein is 10.3 per cent. 

The feature of BRRI Rice-91 is that its leaves are dark green and steeper. The average height of this rice variety is 180 centimeters and does not easily tilt. Its average life time is 156 days, which is 10-15 days ahead of local Joly Aman rice. The varieties catch less disease and insects attack.

BRRI Rice-92 can be cultivated using less water. For that, in the Barendra region where the water level goes down in the dry season, it can be cultivated easily.

The lifetime of this species is equal to BRRI 29 which means 156-160 days. There are 26 per cent amylose in this rice varieties.