Manipur farmers break national record CORRESPONDENT IMPHAL, Nov 12 – Farmers of Manipur have managed to break the national record of producing rice in some variety.
This has happened in Bishnupur district which is a part of State’s “rice bowl” which comprise three other valley districts – Imphal West, Imphal East and Thoubal.
After their unsuccessful attempts with other rice varieties in the past, farmers of Ethai village in Bishnpur district have recently planted IR-64, a new rice variety which was grown in an area of 35 hectares and it yielded a minimum of 33 bags (50 kg per bag) per acre on an average.
“It came up to 7,920 kg per hectare which is higher than the national average of 7,200 kg per hectare,” Pheiroijam Rajendro,Deputy Director, State Agriculture department told The Assam Tribune here.
In the previous year, the farmers could produce hardly 24 bags of other rice variety. “We feel satisfied with the IR-64 variety as it has more demand in the market and now we’re thinking of cultivating it in 100 hectares next season,” he said.
Under the NEC sponsored scheme, State Agriculture department distributed the new rice variety (IR-64) to the farmers of Bishnupur district including the farmers of the model seed villages which followed the Integrated Pest Management (IPM) method of farming this year.
Besides guiding the farmers, the project also supplied fertilizers, pesticides and insecticides to the farmers free of cost under the scheme. The rice variety was grown in 1,195 hectares extending across the Bishnupur district.
“As the rice variety is suited to the soil of the State, the department will start a campaign for extension of cultivation of the same variety to other fields across the State”, Rajendro informed.
