The term NERICA stands for ‘New Rice for Africa’, an extended family of some 3,000 siblings was developed by interspecific crossing between Asian rice Oryza sativa and African rice O. glaberrima in 1990. Evolvement of high-yielding NERICA rice variety by interspecific crossing is the first success in the history of rice breeding.
NERICA varieties have high yield potential and short growth cycle (90–100 days) which helps to take up double cropping and crop rotation with a legume and enrich the soil with nitrogen. In addition, NERICAs escape late-season insects and diseases, thus preventing yield losses. NERICAs have raised the yield ceiling of upland rice by 50%. The new rice can produce 6 mt/hac. in the best condition and up to 2.3 mt/hac. under drought. Tolerance to acidic soils enables the utilization of huge repositories of rock phosphate, which is soluble only in acid medium.
BADC started applied research activities with an amount of 60 gm NERICA seed in Sept. 2009 to assess the feasibility of its cultivation in different Agro Ecological Zones of Bangladesh. In applied research NERICA found suitable to cultivate in all the three rice seasons (round the year) i.e., Aus, Aman & Boro in Bangladesh. After harvesting potato huge area remain fallow throughout the country where NERICA can be cultivated as an additional crop. It is also suitable for cultivation as a Jhum crop in hilly areas.
