Agri experts in a function here yesterday urged the farmers to farm zinc enriched paddy innovated by Bangladesh Rice Research Institute(BARI)at larger scale in coming seasons to get desired output and to meet the demand of zinc as well as to build a heathy nation.

“. Zinc is relatively well known to be good for supporting the immune system, but it may also be very important for reproductive health, proper growth and development in children, bone health, vision, hearing, digestive health, skin, and hair growth’’, they said.

They made the comments while addressing a Field Day on the harvest of BRRI Dhan-74 and BRRI Dhan- 84 in the land of one farmer Yakub Ali at ChhotoDoulatpur village under KhordoKomorpur union of Sadullapurupazila in the district on Tuesday afternoon.

RDRS Bangladesh, a reputed non-government organization in north Bengal of the country organized the function in cooperation with Harvest Plus to inspire the local farmers to inspire the farming of the varieties.

District seed certification officer of the district seed certification office of the district town agriculturist Showkat Osman attended the function and addressed it as the chief guest and agriculture extension officer of Sadullapurupazila agriculture office AbulKalam Azad spoke at the function as the special guest.

Presided over by Gouri Rani, leader of KhordoKomorpurNariUnnayanSangstha formed by RDRS Bangladesh, the function was also addressed among others by sub assistant agriculture officer of upazila agriculture office Younus Ali, agriculture Research and development officer of Harvest Plus Md. Rahul  Amin.

The speakers in their speeches said that the newly innovated paddy will play a vital role in fighting zinc and protein deficiency in human body, especially for children and women.

As rice is the staple food of Bangladesh, the newly invented variety could provide useful food value for zinc enrichment for people and it will be especially helpful to prevent and cure diarrhea and pneumonia in children, they added.

In this context, the agriexperts put emphasis on farming the BARI invented Varieties at larger scale in next seasons.

After harvesting the varieties, the farmers present are so much happy and expressed their satisfaction over the production as 6.06 tonnes of paddy were produced from a hectare of land.

Alarge number of farmers, local elite including the journalists of print and electronic media were present on the occasion.