BSS, Rangpur :
The farmers have exceeded the fixed farming target of the short duration and less irrigation water consuming Aush paddy during the current off-season period in Rangpur Agriculture Region.
Officials of the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) said tender plants of Aush rice are growing superbly amid favorable climatic conditions predicting a super bumper production of the crop in the region this year.
The farmers exceeded the fixed Aush rice cultivation target by 1.66 percent following various pragmatic steps taken by the government like distribution of special intensives and providing technical support as well as conducting motivational campaign.
The DAE has fixed a target of cultivating Aush rice on 54,775 heaters of land with the production target of 1.54-lakh tonnes of clean rice (2.34-lakh tonnes of paddy) in all five districts of the region.
“However, farmers have brought 55,530 hectares of land under Aush rice cultivation, higher by 755 hectares or 1.66 percent than the fixed farming target,” said Horticulture Specialist of the DAE at its regional office Agriculturist Khondker Md. Mesbahul Islam.
Of them, farmers have cultivated hybrid variety of Aus rice on 14,174 heaters of land, high yielding variety on 40,945 hectares and local variety of Aush rice on 411 hectares of land in the region this season.
He said farmers produced 1.23-lakh tonnes of Aush rice from 40, 618 hectares of land in 2018 in the region where a super bumper output of the crop is expected this year.
“Aush rice cultivation during the off-season regained popularity among farmers as a result of special steps taken by the present government in last ten years,” Islam said.
Talking to BSS, Additional Director of DAE for Rangpur region Muhammad Ali said the government distributed special incentives in terms of Aus rice seed and fertilisers worth Taka 5.75 crore among 34,029 small and marginal farmers of the region this time.
“Under the incentive package, every beneficiary farmer got 5 kg high yielding variety Aush rice seed, 15 kg Di-ammonium phosphate and 10 kg
Murrieta of Potash fertilisers free of costs to cultivate Aush rice on one bigha of land,” he said.
“The farmers are farming Aush rice on more land and producing additional rice during the off-season between May and mid-August without hampering T- Aman rice cultivation on the same land in recent years,” Ali added. Talking to BSS, farmers Abul Kalam, Moyen Uddin and Mominul Haque of different villages in Sadar, Badarganj and Taraganj upazilas here said tender plants of Aush rice crop are growing superbly on their crop lands amid favourable climatic conditions.
Similarly, farmers Aiyub Ali, Ariful Haque and Abdul Latif Syedpur upazila in Nilphamari, Abdus Salam of Kurigram Sadar upazila and Lutfar Rahman of Kaliganj upazila in Nilphamari said they are expecting a bumper Aush rice output this year.
Agriculturist Dr Md Abdul Mazid, who got the Independence Award 2018 Medal in food security category last year, told BSS that Aush rice farming is increasing in recent years following various effective steps taken the present pro-farmer government.
He said cultivation of Aush rice should be increased further using unused seasonal rain water as an additional crop on the lands those remain fallow during the off season to increase annual rice production.
“After harvesting Aush rice by mid-August, farmers can easily cultivate T- Aman rice on the same land to further increase rice production for attaining
sustainable national food security amid changing climate,” Dr Mazid added.
