Farmers to produce more rice using less water in near future

Currently, to get one kilogram of rice farmers usually use 3000 to 5000 litres of water which can be substantially reduced to 500 to 1000 litres keeping the rice yield at the same level, opined Prof TP Toung, head of Crops Soil and Environment Division at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines.

The efficiency of irrigated water on the rice fields is around 40 percent, which can significantly be increased with the adoption of the new technology, he said.

"As the research is yet to be completed, we are discussing it within the scientist community, rather than disseminating it to the public," he added.

Prof Toung, who has come to Bangladesh on a short visit, was speaking at a seminar tilted 'Water Saving Technology for Rice Production' at Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (Barc).

The seminar was organised jointly by Barc and Saarc Agricultural Centre (SAC) at the Barc conference room in the city.

Prof Toung said while a household spends around 500 litres of water daily, production of a kilogram of rice using 3000 litres of water is not an efficient process.

"In Bangladesh farmers extensively use groundwater for Boro production and spend 30 percent of production cost on irrigation. So saving of water would ultimately result in reducing the cost of rice production," he added.

The IRRI expert said with the water saving technology that includes effective use of rainwater, the rate of depletion of groundwater would be reduced, arsenic contamination minimised, and ecological balance not be hampered.

He also spoke of some challenges of 'water saving technology' that needs to be addressed.

Researchers should explore issues like weed infestation in the fields, sustainability of rice varieties and ecological balance of specific areas, he observed.

Member-Secretary of Barc (Crop) Dr Abdur Razzaque chaired the programme where Director of SAC Dr Wais Kabir, IRRI Liaison Scientist for Bangladesh Dr MA Hamid Miah and Principal Scientist of the Institute of Water Modeling Dr AFM Afzal Hossain were present.