Scarce urea supply in time of need in the remote pockets of the country, high diesel prices and erratic power supply caused the boro farmers to invest more than usual.

Now, the lack of rain comes as the last curse on them.

Scientists now think that the country requires drought-tolerant varieties of crop that will withstand such sultry summer.

"Even if the problems of fertiliser, diesel and drought don't have any impact on the overall food production, it would definitely have impacts on the price of rice in future since the growers had to invest a lot for boro this year," said Gazi Jashim Uddin Ahmed, chief scientific officer of the Agronomy Division of Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI).

Talking to newsmen at BRRI in Gazipur yesterday, he, however, noted that a welcome rain at the flowering stage of boro within the next couple of days could still have a positive impact on its production.

The BRRI, country's premier agricultural research facility of international repute, has so far released as many as 45 high-yielding rice varieties (HYVs), including a hybrid one, largely contributing to enhance Bangladesh's rice output to 2.27 crore tonne in 2004-05 from a mere one crore tonne in 1970 when the institute was established.

Although BRRI developed two medium drought-tolerant rice varieties--BRRI Dhan-42 and BRRI Dhan-43--over the last couple of years, its Director General Dr M Mahiul Haque is far from feeling relaxed.

"Bangladesh's croplands give a look of Chhattishgarh and Jharkhand [two drought-prone Indian states] this year. We are mulling over long term plans to pace up with the climatic shifts," said an anxious Haque.

Although BRRI has developed many HYVs with yield potentials up to eight tonnes per hectare land, there has been a yield gap of 1.5-2 tonnes between breeders' plot and farmers' fields. The BRRI DG thinks Bangladeshi farmers have the potential of growing at least 10 percent more rice on the same land if the yield gap is bridged.

Asked what caused the wide gap, BRRI Director (Research) Dr M Abdul Baqui observed that the farmers' tendency to plant aged seedlings do the damage.

Instead of collecting rice seedlings of 40 days, many growers collect 60-70-day-old seeds and plant them, which results in losses in productivity, Baqui explained, attributing the tendency to non-availability of timely irrigation of the croplands.

Moreover, because of high diesel charges and undependable power supply, many pump operators refuse to provide the growers with irrigation facilities at early stage of boro planting, forcing them to go for late planting, experts noted.

Our correspondents in the rice-rich northern districts noted that farmers had hard time in timely cultivation of boro due to the crises of diesel, fertiliser and power. Now that drought has cast its spell, the government's target of producing 1.40 crore tonnes of boro becomes increasingly unattainable.

While officials at the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) in Dhaka declined to acknowledge any adverse impact on boro cultivation, agriculture officials at district level fear some losses in boro output due to the crises.

"Farmers are having hard time in watering their boro lands as groundwater aquifer is not replenished there being no rainfall for a long time," said an official.