52 Rice Varieties in a Single Plot: Farmers Search for the Best Variety for Their Own Soil

In Sylhet Division, farmers are growing 52 varieties of rice together in a single plot to find the variety best suited to their own land. The unusual initiative was reported by Sylhet Voice.

Growing so many varieties side by side allows the growth, disease resistance and yield of each variety to be compared directly under the same soil, water and weather. The farmers' search aims to pick the best variety for their land from exactly that comparison.

Rice is one of the main crops of the Sylhet region. Across the division's haors and plains, rice is grown over vast areas every season, and a farmer's yield and income depend heavily on the choice of variety.

Choosing the wrong variety can cut the harvest despite the same labour and cost. A variety suited to the soil and water, on the other hand, raises the chance of a good yield at lower risk — the farmers' trial planting comes from that reality.

Growing 52 varieties together means testing 52 possibilities in the same field. Which matures early, which tolerates water better, which yields more — the farmers hope the field itself will answer these questions.

Boro rice in the haors is especially important to Sylhet Division's agriculture. With the risk of early floods and hill runoff, variety choice there demands even more care.

Detailed information about the initiative — in which area's land and how many farmers are involved — has not yet been made public. The available information says the initiative came from the farmers' own experience of their land.

Agriculture specialists generally believe a farmer's own field trial can work alongside formal agricultural research, because the decision is taken on the very soil where the next season's crop will grow.

Only after the harvest will it be known which varieties performed best in this plot. That result will decide which varieties stay on these farmers' preference lists next season.

The planting of 52 varieties in one plot is therefore being seen not just as a news item but as an example of farmers deciding through their own experience. The picture will become clearer once the yield figures are published.