BSS, Rajshahi :
Farmers of transplanted Aman in Rajshahi were happy after pulling in a good yield coupled with fair price this season, everywhere in the region including its vast Barind tract.
According to reports from different areas in the region, farmers were busy harvesting in the final stages also creating employment opportunities for many needy people.
Currently, a maund (37.33kg) of Aman paddy is being sold for Taka 640 to Taka 710 at different markets in the district while the production cost of each maund was Taka 420 to Taka 450, farmers said.
Agriculturists said growers sowed high quality Aman seeds like BINA-7, BR-48, 49, 62, 71 and 72 and local early variety Basmati paddy while the DAE officials provided farmers with training and necessary instructions to boost production.
According to a source of Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE), the target of Aman cultivation had been set to bring 6,90,141 hectares whereas actually the paddy was cultivated on 7,37,903 hectares of land in Rajshahi division.
Of those, 7.10 lakh hectares of land were brought under high yielding varieties, 18,389 hectares under local varieties and 9,705 hectares under hybrid varieties.
The DAE here has set a target of producing around 18.67-lakh tonnes of transplanted Aman rice in the region including its vast Barind tract during the current season.
Additional Director of DAE SM Mustafizur Rahman told BSS recently that the rice is expected to be produced from around 7.38-lakh hectares of land in the districts of Rajshahi, Naogaon, Chapainawabganj, Natore, Pabna, Sirajgonj, Bogura and Joypurhat.
Bangladesh Agricultural Department Corporation (BADC) and Barind Multipurpose Development Authority (BMDA) supplied quality seed among the growers to achieve a good yield.
This season the farmers were getting a fair price for their crop, which is now being sold between Taka 700 to Taka 750 per mound, said Zakir Hossain, a farmer of Chowbaria in Paba upazila.
“Good Aman harvest was expected this season everywhere in the region as weather condition remained favourable, prices of fertiliser and other inputs were relatively low while pest attacks did not affect the crop,” he said.
“I have harvested 18 to 20 maunds of HYV of Aman crop per bigha of land, as weather was almost favourable this year,” said Abdur Rahim, a model farmer from Bargachhi in Paba upazila.
NabiburRahman, 43, a farmer from Kachua in Tanore upazila, said, “I cultivated high yielding flood tolerant Aman paddy on 68 decimal of land this year and got 25-kg of paddy from each decimal. It was only 18- kg last year.”
“I received seed and technical support from the regional office of Bangladesh Rice Research Institute to cultivate the variety. I will cultivate it on more land next season,” he said.
“I have cultivated Aman on four acres (1.61 hectares) of land spending Taka 7,000-8,000 per acre and got 35-36 maunds of paddy from each acre. The new paddy was selling at Taka 750 per maund and I hope to get a profit of Taka30,000-32,000,” said Jahangir Alam, a farmer from Kaliganj in Manda upazila.
