Jhenidah: Haripada Kapali, inventor of special kind of paddy called Haridhan, died in his residence at Ahsannagar village of Sadar upazila of Jhenidah early on Thursday. He was 96.

Family said the agrarian farmer who was suffering from old age complications breathed his last around 1:15am.

Haripada, the farmer of the village, does not have any academic degree but his experience and success in agriculture was laudable.

Haridhan is a high-yielding variety of rice that offers hope to the food-insecure districts of the north.

According to Scholars Bangladesh, it was October 2002 and Haripada was nursing his paddy field. He suddenly noticed an exceptional cluster of paddy, comparatively taller and healthier.

He did not pluck it, rather paid more attention to it and at the end of the year he was successful in obtaining more seed from that variety.

After further nurturing, this special variety that can produce 240 kg more paddy per bigha, has won the confidence of the farmers of that entire region.

The local farmers have voluntarily named the paddy as Haridhan after the name of its inventor.

Scientists at the Rice Research Institute have also acclaimed the innovation.