**2. Major cereals**

### **2.1 Rice (***Oryza sativa* **L.)**

In our tradition, rice is synonymous with food, the world's second-largest per capita rice consumption at 179.9 kg yr.−1 [8], and is dominating the entire crop sector. It provides nearly 48% of rural employment, about two-thirds of the total calorie supply and one-half of the total protein intake of an average person in the country. The rice sector contributes one-half of the agricultural GDP and one-sixth of the national income in Bangladesh [3]. Due to favorable weather conditions (e.g., temperature, relative humidity, rainfall, day length, etc.), rice is grown all the year-round in three growing periods *viz*. Aus (summer rice; April–August), Aman (monsoon rice; July–December), and Boro (winter rice; November–June) in Bangladesh. The growth of rice production in Bangladesh was 2.8% yr.−1 in the 1980s and 3.5% yr.−1 from 1990 to 1991 until recently [9]. Since the late 1980s, most of this growth has occurred through the development and adoption of improved and stress-tolerant rice cultivars through irrigation in Boro rice (dry season) and supplementary irrigation in Aman rice. The introduction of Boro rice in low-lying areas by replacing rain-fed traditional Aus rice cultivars, jute and the other upland crop cultivars also played an important role [9].

The total rice coverage was about 11.52 million hectares (m ha) over three rice growing seasons in 2018–2019 (**Table 3**). Most of the modern rice cultivars are photoperiod insensitive, therefore, they could be cultivated almost throughout the year. Even in some specific ecosystems, farmers may harvest three rice crops a year from the same piece of land. The recent coverage of Aus, Aman and Boro area were 9.60, 48.82 and 41.58 per cent, respectively. Boro and Aman contributed 53.75 and 38.62 per cent, respectively of the total rice production whereas Aus only 7.63 per cent, although total production of Aus rice increasing very slowly [9].

Though the total rice-growing area did not change much during the last four and a half decades (**Figure 1**), rice production nearly quadrupled from 9.8 million metric tons (m t) in 1971–1972 to 36.4 m t in 2019, helping Bangladesh to achieve selfsufficiency in rice production and ensuring food security. There had been a major shift in ecotype based (Boro-Aus-Aman) rice cultivation. The area under HYVs of Boro rice was 0.32 m ha in 1971–1972, 4.11 m ha in 2007–2008 and 4.79 m ha in 2018–2019. Most of the traditional Aus cultivars were in the process of replacement with the introduction of HYVs. Around 50 per cent of the traditional Deep Water


**Table 3.** *Rice statistics in 2018/19.*

*Cereal Grains of Bangladesh – Present Status, Constraints and Prospects DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.97072*

#### **Figure 1.**

*Area coverage and production trend of rice. M ha million hectare; m t million metric ton. Source: BBS [4, 10].*

Rice (DWR) lands were transformed into irrigated Boro land [9]. In 1971–1972 traditional Aus coverage was 2.95 m ha. More than two-thirds of the Aus area was given up mostly to Boro by 2014–2015. The coverage under Aman has experienced little change since 1971. The trends in area coverage and production under different rice ecotypes are described and discussed in detail in [9]. Recently, researchers of the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) and their collaborators had developed the rice vision leading to 2050 and beyond for Bangladesh [11]. They reported that rice production could reach 47.2 m t, having a surplus of 2.6 m t in 2050 and targeted to be continued thereafter, at the present increment rate of rice production. Several measures were also recommended to achieve the rice vision of Bangladesh leading to 2050 and beyond [11]. Although rice is the component of most of the cropping patterns of Bangladesh, 17 cropping patterns exclusively contained rice crops [7]. Five of them were most dominant among cropping patterns of Bangladesh.

#### *2.1.1 Rice cultivars of Bangladesh*

Bangladesh was very rich in rice genetic resources. Name of nearly 12,500 traditional cultivars, those were cultivated in different seasons of Bangladesh, were listed [12]. The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) Gene Bank contains more than 8,000 traditional rice cultivars collected from Bangladesh. Rice breeders used many of these landraces as donors to develop elite lines that have been used as parents for popular improved rice cultivars grown throughout Asia [13]. The Genetic Resource and Seed Division of Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) has collected and conserved more than 8,000 landraces of rice were as long medium, and short-term storage (**Table 4**). Most of the traditional cultivars are out of cultivation due to comparatively low yield, although these have many exceptional qualities e.g., fineness, taste, aroma, etc. Only around eight per cent of the recorded landrace cultivars are still available with the farmers in some fragile pocket areas like saline, drought, deep water area and hilly areas of Bangladesh [13]. In recent years, the cultivation of traditional rice cultivars with exceptional features e.g., long grains, fineness, taste, aroma, etc. is retrieving popularity for a premium price, customer's preferences, national and international demand, etc. Presently, one specialized research institute, the BRRI and a few other organizations like Bangladesh Institute of Nuclear


#### **Table 4.**

*Rice genetic resources in the BRRI Gene Bank.*


#### **Table 5.**

*Seasonal distribution of modern, both inbred and hybrid, rice cultivars in Bangladesh.*

Agriculture (BINA), Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU), are working on the development of high yielding rice cultivars, both inbred and hybrids, for different seasons (**Table 5**). Seeds of some hybrid cultivars are imported by different organizations and seed companies from different countries.

#### **2.2 Wheat (***Triticum aestivum* **L.)**

Wheat, one of the first cultivated plants, possesses unique dough-forming properties and is the leading source of plant (cereal) protein in the human diet, having higher protein content (14.4%) compared to other major cereals i.e., maize *Cereal Grains of Bangladesh – Present Status, Constraints and Prospects DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.97072*

#### **Figure 2.**

*Area coverage and production trend of wheat. M ha million hectare; m t million metric ton. Source: BBS [4, 10].*

(corn) and rice (12.1 and 7.5%, respectively) (**Table 1**). In terms of total production tonnages used for food, it is currently second to rice as the main human food crop and ahead of maize, allowing for more extensive use in animal feeds. The increasing income level and urbanization lead to dietary changes such as switching from traditional rice to wheat and to livestock, poultry, and fish products, which in turn require large amounts of maize for their production [16].

In Bangladesh, it is a crop of Rabi (Winter; Mid-October to Mid-March) season; it requires dry weather, bright sunlight and well-distributed rainfall between 40 and 110 cm for congenial growth. Although wheat has some advantages in its cultivation compared to Boro and other winter crops i.e., less water requirement, echo-friendly, high nutritional value, diversified use, etc.; the command area under wheat cultivation showed a decreasing trend (**Figure 2**). In 1971–1972, the coverage was 0.127 m ha and the total production was only 0.113 m t. Since then the coverage area remarkably went up to 0.88 m ha in 1998–1999 which is almost 7 times in 27 years. However, the area declined to 0.39 m ha in 2006–2007 and maintained more or less the same level up to 2011–2012, thereafter, an increasing trend up to 2015–2016 and the 0.33 m ha in 2018–2019 (**Figure 2**). The total production followed the same trend until 2006–2007 having the highest peak (1.90 m t) in 1998–1999. However, despite a small increase in the coverage area (compared to 1971–1972), the production trend is quite inspiring (**Figure 2**). This might be due to the application of innovative approaches in wheat research and development [9]. A specialized research institute, the Bangladesh Wheat and Maize Research Institute (BWMRI) has very recently been established in 2017. Formerly, it was a (Wheat) Research Centre under the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI). Until today 33 high yielding wheat cultivars are developed by BARI (**Table 6**). Just getting separated from BARI very recently, BWMRI has released three cultivars, *viz*. WMRI Gom 1, WMRI Gom 2 and WMRI Gom 3, within a short period. The Plant Genetic Resources Centre (PGRC), BARI has also collected and conserved 602 wheat accessions in its gene banks and conservatories [18]. Despite the governmental heartfelt afford and policy supports the wheat-growing area declining day by day due to climate change impacts e.g., shorter winter, high temperature, early or late monsoon rainfall, etc. Among the cropping patterns, the number of wheat-based cropping


#### **Table 6.**

*Modern wheat cultivars developed by Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute.*

patterns was 27 which occupying 5.36% of the net cropped area [7]. Wheat-Jute-T. Aman was the most dominant cropping pattern followed by Wheat-Fallow-T. Aman with a net cropped area of 1.72% and 1.06%, respectively. Late planting of wheat due to delayed harvesting of T. Aman rice, a longer time for land preparation, formation of plow pan due to puddling in transplanted rice, low organic matter and micro-nutrients deficiency in the soil, unavailability of labourers, hotter winter, late monsoon rain and some cases of excess moisture in the soil, causes a significantly lower yield in every year.
