Dhaka, October 25, 2013. The entire country owes to BRRI rice breeders for evolving two  salt tolerant varieties of paddy, namely, 53 and 54 and two submergence tolerant  rice varieties, namely, 56 and 57 for areas where saline soil and frequent occurrence flood limit the production of this staple cereal. Also a good deal of credit goes to BINA rice breeders for evolving two drought  tolerant  rice varieties, namely, BINA 11 and 12. It. Mainly there are three factors which contribute to the successful introduction of a crop cultivar. These three factors are: advanced technology, adequately skilled manpower and necessary finances. The breeders used marker assisted selection using facilities available in BRRI and gene sharing with IRRI.  The projects were financed by the USAID and  Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation  through IRRI for countrywide cultivation of these paddies through seed multiplication

These varieties have shown outstanding performance in that  the farmers in these areas have  harvested a bumper crop from newly bred stress tolerant rice  varieties developed by the above two Institutions with the collaboration of their international partners.  One of the international organizations, namely, Sustainable Rice Seed Production and Delivery System (SRSPDS) is implementing  the project  in Southern Bangladesh under Stress Tolerant Rice for Poor Farmers in Africa and South Asia (STRASA) project.