BSS, Manikganj :
Harvesting of Boro rice is going on full swing with a positive sign of bumper production in all seven upazilas of the district and it will be ended soon.According to Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) sources, cultivators are now busy to collect their crops from the field and nearly 70 percent of Boro paddy has, so far, been harvested in the district. The department set a target to produce 1,79, 216 tonnes of Boro paddy from 46,775 hectares of land in all the seven upazilas of the district during the current season but the farmers cultivated the paddy on 47,985 hectares of land and achieved a good production exceeding its target. Of the fixed target, 43,525 hectares of land was brought under upshi variety with a production target of 1, 65, 830 tonnes of rice, 2,550 hectares of land was brought under high bread variety with a production target of 12,266 tonnes of rice and 700 hectares of land was brought under local variety with a production target of 1,120 tonnes of rice.
Deputy Director of the DAE Abu Mohammad Enayet Ullah said the farmers are expecting a bumper production due to the favourable weather which was prevailing all over the district and the rice plant was growing well.To make the cultivation a grand success, necessary measures had been taken to supply fertilizers, insecticides and other agro-input to the farmers at fair prices side by side with ensuring power supply facility by Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) and Rural Electrification Board, said an official of the DAE.
Most of the farmers have been using combined harvester machines for harvesting their Boro paddy due to shortage of labourers all over the district, the sources added.
Groundnut cultivation delighted Char people
The farmers of char areas of Daulatpur, Shibalaya and Harirampur Upazilas of the district are happy for getting bumper output of groundnut as its harvesting has started on the barren chars during the current Kharif-1 season.
With the rising of water level of the river Jamuna and Padma, the char area of the three upazilas of the district is continuing to inundate. So the groundnut cultivators are passing busy time to harvest their products from the low land.
Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) officials here said that the groundnut is generally cultivated on the sandy land.
Experimentally, some local farmers started cultivation of groundnut on their barren land which would remain fallow all over the year in the char areas for the last few years, they said, adding that seeing their success, a number of farmers now are cultivating groundnut in the vast char areas of the Jamuna and the Padma rivers.
The char farmers are getting fair prices of the crop between Tk. 2500 and 3000 per mound as per its quality while it has high demand in the local markets.
DAE office sources said they set a target of groundnut cultivation on 2600 hectares of land in the chars of three upazilas of the district, but more than 2700 hectares of land has already been cultivated during the Kharif-1 season, exceeding its fixed target.
Rifazuddin, one of the groundnut cultivators of Char kalikapur of Baghutia union of Daulatpur upazila, said he had cultivated groundnut on two bighas of land this season and was getting expected production and prices.
Md Haidar Ali, another groundnut cultivator of Harirampur Upazila said groundnut cultivation is gaining popularity in the char areas as it grows in the sandy barren land and it needs no irrigation and fertilizer.
Now the groundnut became one of the cash crops for the char people, he said adding that groundnut is cultivated twice in the year in the winter and summer seasons.
The sources said the cultivators are getting opportunities to sell their crops at the nearest markets and even at their homes as a good number of buyers regularly visit the areas for searching the groundnuts.
Abu Mohammad Enayet Ullah, Deputy Director of the DAE, said the sandy land of char area is suitable for groundnut cultivation and its cultivation is gaining popularity in the three upazilas of the district day by day.
