Hetalbunia and Hatbati are the two villages of Batiaghata upzilla of Khulna district. Agriculture, aquaculture, fishing are the main professions of the people of these villages. Salinity is the main problem of Agriculture. In dry season farmers are mostly dependant on T. Aman cultivation for rice. Unfortunately farmers are habituated to traditional agricultural practices and as a result they do not get the optimum yield. Uttaran started CSISA-IRRl-Uttaran partnership project in these areas in the year of 2011-2012 and provided training to 200 farmers on ‘Aman Rice Cultivation’ in Batiaghata Upzilla. The project also gave seed support of high yielding and saline tolerant varieties like, BR 23, BRRl dhan41, BRRl dhan53, BRRl dhan54, BINA dhan-8 etc.
Abdul Mannan Sheikh is a 52 years old farmer of Batiaghata village who received training and seeds from IRRI and cultivated his 33 decimals of land. He told the training was a great opportunity for him to learn more about modern agricultural technologies. Moreover, the seed provided by the project increased his Amon production. Around 25 percent production of Aman has increased from previous year.
