Reported by Md. Ohidur Rahman from Netrokona
Frequent hilly floods and heavy sand deposition have rendered agricultural lands infertile for indigenous and Bengali farmers living in the border belt villages of Kalmakanda Upazilla in Netrakona district. Many agriculture lands have become fallow, leaving marginal farmers unable to grow crops on their land. Farmers from 27 border villages, including Chandrdinga, Betgora, Baghber, Sannyasipara, Patlabon, Hatiber, and North Lengura, have been displaced locally due to sand deposition and water scarcity. Hundreds of fertile lands have turned barren.
However, to overcome this problem with support from the BARCIK, farmers of these villages have been conducting participatory varietals selection (PVS) to combat sand and drought since 2020. These farmers from those village namely Chandrdinga, Betgora, Baghber, Sannyasipara, Patlabon, and North Lengura have been experimenting with cultivating sand-tolerant crops. Over the past three years, they have focused on rice variety research on these sand-affected lands.
These farmers through their organization called “Chandrdinga Embankment Protection Committee” from Rangchati Union of Kalmakanda collected 20 native rice varieties from the farmer groups located at Rameshworpur village of Netrokona. They began testing these varieties for sand tolerance. As part of the research these farmers selected Malshira, Kheksial, and Bishali Binni rice varieties to cope with the problems due to climate change. During 2022 and 2023, seven farmers adopted Malshira rice through field demonstrations conducted by farmers.
On the other hand, 27 farmers from 14 villages, including Chandrdinga, Baghber, Betgora, Gobindapur, Nayapara, Kharnai, Taranagar, Shibpur, Mantala, North Lengura, Gauripur, Betuyatali, and Nolchapra, successfully cultivated Malshira rice on sandy lands this year (2024). These farmers include Parimal Rema, Gregory Mrong, Kerup Kubi, Pulak Kubi, Sunil Mrong, Abdur Razzak, Yantra Hajong, Eliya Mrong, Jasinta Rema, Abdul Mannan, Bhutto Mia, Solita Chisim, Shahidul Alam, Tara Nokrek, Protyoy Jambil, Abdul Halim, and Nure Alam.
Parimal Rema, a farmer from Chandrdinga village while sharing his success cultivating Malsira rice said, “I cultivated Malshira rice on 40 decimals of land and harvested 24 maunds of rice. Last year, five other farmers collected Malshira seeds from me. This year, 11 farmers have chosen Malshira seeds during the field day.”
Malshira rice has become a trusted solution for farmers in the sandy border regions. Farmers prefer it because it thrives on both sandy and loamy soils, yielding 6–7 maunds per decimal. The rice is robust, disease-resistant, and does not lodge easily. Additionally, the seeds can be conserved for future use, and the crop matures in just 124 days. Local farmers believe that Malshira rice will spread further across Kalmakanda in the coming years as a reliable solution to sandy land.
