The farmers have produced over 2.94 lakh tonnes of mustard oilseeds during this Rabi season after completion of harvest everywhere in the northern region a couple of weeks ago, official sources said.
With the arrival of the newly harvested mustard in the local markets, its prices fell down to Taka 1,400 per maund (40 kg) on an average against the price of Taka 2,000 per maund a couple of months ago in the region, market sources said.
According to sources in the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE), a target of producing over 3.02 lakh tonnes of the oilseeds was fixed through bringing over 2.52 lakh hectares of land under its cultivation during this season in the northern region. The framer have finally cultivated the crop in over 2.48 lakh hectares land in the region, some 3,575 hectares less than the fixed farming target due to crop diversification this time.
Deputy Director of the DAE Feroz Ahmed said the achieved mustard production is satisfactory and adequate government assistances including training, inputs, quality seed, technologies and agri-loans were provided to farmers this season.
The DAE, Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation, Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute (BARI) and other NGOs and organisations had distributed quality mustard seed and commercial banks disbursed agri-loans among farmers this season, he said.
Agriculture and Environment Coordinator of RDRS Bangladesh Mamunur Rashid said the farmers have been showing more interests in farming high yielding BARI variety mustard after getting repeated bumper production and excellent price in recent years.
Associate Director-Agriculture of BRAC International (South Asia & Africa) Dr M A Mazid said the farmers got better production for mostly cultivating high yielding variety seeds evolved by BARI and adopting the latest agronomical managements.
