After a decade of zooming growth, the country's hybrid rice industry crash-landed this year as farmers dumped the "sticky rice" in favour of old-fashioned high yielding varieties.
Hybrid rice was billed as a panacea for the country's chronic food shortages when it was introduced in fiscal 2001-2, with private firms being allowed to market seeds for the first time.
But after years of unbridled expansion, the rice -- which ensures 30 per cent more yield -- found local farmers a tough sale this year when it lost out to high yielding varieties in a game of economics.
Officials said only about 7,000 tonnes of hybrid rice seeds were sold in the just-concluded Boro season, down from a record high of 12,000 tonnes in 2007-8 crop year.
Nearly a dozen private firms which have made substantial investments in hybrid rice technology and nationwide marketing network were red-faced with many failing to achieve half of their targetted sale.
The country harvested a record 19 million tonnes rice in this Boro season, in which the contribution of hybrid was a meagre three million tonnes, down from five million in 2007-8 and nearly 3.5 million in last year.
"No doubt, hybrid rice gives higher yield. But these days farmers don't want to plant these crops because they hardly make any economic sense," said Anwar Faruq, head of seeds wing at the Agriculture Ministry.
"The millers don't want to buy hybrid rice. They offer cheap rates -- about Tk100-150 per maund (37.5 kilogram) less than normal varieties -- for the crop. As a result, farmers are no longer interested to plant these varieties," he said.
Millers said their reluctance was due to poor sale . They tried to market hybrid rice in the country's less affluent region, but even there they found the consumers a hard bargain.
Like the high yielding varieties such as Swarna, BR-11, BR 28 or BR-29, which can be cut and sold as miniket, paizam or nazirshail in local market, hybrid rice cannot be marketed as a local variety, said a miller.
"Even in the rural areas, middle class or even the lower middle class people don't want to eat hybrid rice. They don't want a rice which is too sticky and too mild," he added.
The government's policy to expand the acreage of HYVs such as BR 28, BR 29 in the dry Boro season have also dealt a mortal blow to the hybrid rice industry.
In the last five years, state-owned seed seller Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation (BADC) has quadrupled sell of HYV rice seeds to 60,000 tonnes from 15,000 tonnes, further squeezing out the market for hybrid rice.
"The millers love BR-28 most because it can be sold as the finer miniket variety in the local market. Price of these varieties have proved to be recession-proof," said Faruq.
Mohammad Masum, the chairman of Supreme Seed Company, said that the hybrid rice industry was now facing a crisis.
Although Supreme Seeds has kept its top position among the private hybrid rice seed sellers, Masum admitted the market has declined by around 40 per cent since 2007-8.
"The future does not hold up well. The main reason is the change in habit among local consumers. Thanks to economic boom, local consumers now want finer quality rice," he said.
He said hybrid rice is still popular in areas where the farmers grow single rice crop. But it lost out to high yielding varieties in the main rice growing region.
http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/more.php?news_id=139893&date=2011-06-20