Cultivation of the rice variety 'Fatema' has started in Alfadanga upazila of Faridpur through a young man named Riazul Islam.

While talking to the UNB correspondent, he said that he hoped to achieve bumper yield after cultivating this special variety of paddy on 75 percent of his land.

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While visiting the site, it was observed that the rice has already started to ripen. Harvesting of paddy will also start soon.

Riazul said, ”I first came to know about this variety of rice from a Youtube video. I have  collected  the seeds of Fatema paddy from Labuyat’s mother after waiting for six months.”

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It is to be noted that ‘Labuyat’s mother’, the woman from whom Riazul collected the seeds of this variety of paddy is none other than Fatema herself.

Fatema first came into the limelight in 2018, when she cultivated some highly potential sheaves of paddy, which held more grains than the common rice varieties.

Eventually this promising breed was named ‘Fatema Dhan’ after her.

“I cultivated this paddy on 75% of my land. It has cost only TK 10 thousand. I am hopeful that there will be about 95-100 maunds of paddy in this land,” he added.

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He also hoped that he could be self-reliant by cultivating this paddy and expressed his desire to plant this paddy in more land.

Alfadanga Upazila Agriculture Officer Ripon Prasad Saha said the Fatema variety of rice invented by a  farmer in Bagerhat has many characteristics. The yield of this paddy can create a buzz in the country and also surprise  the whole world.

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Rice  can be exported abroad by filling the food shortage of the country if the desired yield is achieved, he added

He further said that farmers are being encouraged to increase the cultivation of ‘Fatema Dhan’ in the upazila.

This variety is mainly cultivated in the Boro season.

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The average length of each plant is from 115 to 130 centimetre, the number of tillers is eight and the average height of each sheaf is 36 centimetres. The yield is above 11 metric tons per hectare.