A new variety of rice that can produce five crops from one plant

Normally, farmers get only one harvest by planting a paddy once, but now if it is planted once, farmers can harvest five crops throughout the year. Though it sounds unbelievable, such a variety of paddy has been developed by Abed Chaudhury, an Australian expatriate rice researcher and geneticist. Experimental cultivation of this variety of paddy took place at Kanihati village in Hajipur Union under Kulaura Upazila of Moulvibazar district. This paddy variety gives a high yield at a low cost. However, the yield in the later crops is slightly less than in the first crop. But the inventor has claimed that the cumulative production is more than five times higher than traditional rice plants. 

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Abed Chaudhury, who was born in Kanihati village of Kulaura Upazila, moved to Australia with a job after finishing his higher education in agriculture in the United States of America. He spent 20 years doing research on rice genes as the chief rice scientist at the Australian National Rice Research Institute. So far, he has invented almost 300 new varieties of rice. In December 2010, he started researching on 20 varieties of rice in a 25-square-meter cornfield in Kanihati village. Of these, there were foreign varieties such as Chinese paddy, Philippine paddy as well as local varieties.

According to Abed Chaudhury, one paddy plant is giving a yield in four varieties five times. Research on these four varieties has been going on for 10 years. In January this year, these four varieties of Boro paddy were planted on two bighas of land. An adequate amount of urea fertilizer was applied. After proper irrigation and care, plants reaching 85 centimeters to one meter in 110 days bore crops. Later, the paddy was intentionally cut at a height of 35 centimeters from the ground.

In early May, the first harvested crop was produced four tons per hector. Since then, after every 45 days, the yield per hector is from two tons to three tons. All varieties yielded 16 tons per hector.

Scientist Abed Chaudhury said that the varieties were developed by employing two methods. Various high-yielding varieties with local varieties and local hybrid varieties with local varieties have been hybridized. About 10–12 years ago, these were identified as suitable for yielding a second or third time.

He said that usually paddy is planted once and is harvested after 120 days. Boro, Aush and Aman paddies are grown in such a manner. The varieties that I developed were planted as Boro at the beginning of the year. This was followed by a Boro, two Aush and two Aman. Every time we harvested the crop and took it home, the plants grew bigger. This is a landmark result. This time the paddy will be harvested for the fifth time and the plants will be left on the field. Research will be done to get more yields from this plant.

Regarding the five-yield paddy, Abed Chaudhury said, “Earlier, I developed another variety of rice. I also developed a rice variety that is harvested twice; the international media called it ‘Rice Twice’. Many called it ‘Extended life rice.’ This is the first time another variety of rice, which I created, remained in the field throughout the year. The seed of this paddy is to be planted at a distance of 5 cm. As a result, the plant can grow steadily from the soil with a strong stem and more paddy plants can grow from one paddy plant.”

Dr. Mirza Mofazzal Islam, the newly appointed Director General at Bangladesh Institute of Nuclear Agriculture (BINA), an internationally renowned scientist and agriculturalist, stated that it is possible to yield four times in a paddy plant in regeneration method. But it is difficult to get five yields from one paddy.  For this reason, it is not so profitable. It will be more profitable for the farmer to plant other crops. It is better to have the maximum yield twice in one plant. More researches can now be done to increase the yield in this method.