The farmers are expecting better jute production as the plants are growing excellent now in northern districts despite a shortfall in the farming target this season when harvest of the fibre crop will begin from the next month, official sources said.
According to the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) sources, the farmers have cultivated jute on over 1.969 lakh hectares land this season in the northern region, about 28,000 hectares or 13 percent less than the fixed target of bringing over 2.25 lakh hectares land under cultivation of crop.
The fixed jute farming target could not be achieved this season due to the prolonged drought-like situation that caused lack of soil moisture hampering sowing of jute seed everywhere, crop diversification and some other reasons.
According to the DAE sources, a target of producing over 24.11 lakh bales of jute from over 2.25 lakh hectares of land has been fixed for the current season in the northern region.
Under the programme, the farmers were to produce 22.37 lakh bales of ‘Tosha’ variety jute fibre from 2.05 lakh hectares of land, 1.44 lakh bales of ‘Deshi’ variety fibre from 16,836 hectares and 30,228 bales of ‘Mechhta’ variety jute from 3,664 hectares in the region this year.
However, the farmers have finally cultivated ‘Tosha’ variety jute on over 1.79 lakh hectares of land, ‘Deshi’ variety on 13,635 hectares, ‘Mechhta’ variety on 4,607 hectares and ‘Kenaf’ variety jute on 2,275 hectares of land this season.
Horticulture Specialist of the Agriculture Extension (DAE) Khandker Md Mesbahul Islam said the farmer faced hurdles in sowing jute seed due to drought-like situation though the situation eased following frequent rainfalls from the end of April last.
Talking to BSS today, Principal Scientific Officer of Rangpur Regional Station of Bangladesh Jute Research Institute (BJRI) Dr Mohammad Ayub Khan narrated various reasons behind the shortfall in farming target of jute this season in the region.
“The prolonged drought-like situation mainly hampered timely sowing of jute seed this season,” he said and also blamed comparatively lower market price of jute last season and crop diversification for not achieving the fixed cultivation target.
He said steps have been taken to evolve mechanized method for easily separating and rotting of jute fibre adopting the latest technologies to ensure better quality of jute so that the farmers could get higher price and become interested in farming jute on more land.
Associate Director Agriculture of BRAC International (South Asia and Africa) Dr M A Mazid today said jute farming could get brighter dimension through increasing production and its export, disbursement of government incentives among farmers and adopting other effective measures.
The farmers have started adopting the latest line sowing jute technology using seeder machines saving huge seed and reducing farming costs and ribbon-retting method to get quality fibre and more profit, he added.
