Khadija Akhter Lita from Netrokona
Netrokona farmer Daru Mian is an experienced and skilled farmers. He has been adopting sustainable agriculture since he started farming with his ancestors. He farms with local varieties of crops and conserves seeds of all his crop for cultivating in the next seasons and for helping farmers who need seeds. He has been farming with the local variety named ‘Yor’ that he has been conserving for years. This year has yielded about 40 mound by cultivating this local variety in his ten katha low land. 70 years old Daru Mian, “My family has been cultivating this paddy since the time of my grandparents. We always collect seeds in addition to cultivating paddy ourselves.” He cultivates BR-49, BR-32 paddy as well as local variety ‘Yor’ every year. He farms this ‘Yor’ paddy mainly considering the time of disaster as this paddy is disaster tolerant.
Daru Mian said, ‘Yor paddy is a water tolerant variety. The height of paddy is slightly higher than other paddy. This paddy does not fall easily. The color of the rice is slightly reddish. It is as delicious to eat as it is fragrant. Any type of cake can be made from this rice. Its straw is also useful foods for cows and goats and is also good for house tents. ‘
He said that the paddy can be planted at the end of Bhadra month and harvested in Agrahayan month. Farmers can harvest this paddy early leading them ensure that this paddy is not damaged due to early flood. Presently about 12 farmers are cultivating ‘Yor’ paddy in Sapmara village of Netrakona. Daru Mian provides and distributes seeds among farmers who have not collected the seeds of this variety early.
Daru Mian grew up with a kind of love for ‘Yor’ rice. He has lost his grandparents but thinks he still could recollect the memories of his grandparents by farming the ‘Yor’ rice variety as he inherited this variety from his grandparents. After harvesting the paddy, he still remembers the smell of rice cooked in a clay pot in the winter morning, making paddy in the dheki with his mother and many wives of the neighborhood in a wooden drum in a corner of the backyard. He thinks that local varieties of paddy are a tradition in every area. When a paddy is lost, the tradition of the village or area is lost with the paddy. Therefore, he has been collecting local rice varieties and conserve seeds of every variety to proect them from extinction.
Besides paddy, Daru Mian also rears ducks, chickens, cows, goats and pigeons at home all the year round. With that he can meet the nutritional needs of the family, saving a certain amount of cash every year.
Translated by Silvanus Lamin
