BSS, Rangpur :
Tender wheat plants are growing superbly amid favorable climatic conditions predicting a bumper production of the cereal crop in Rangpur agriculture region this Rabi season.
Officials of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) said farmers have finally cultivated wheat on 18,280 hectares of land, only 520 hectares or 2.77 percent less against the fixed farming target on 18,800 hectares of land.
The DAE has fixed a target of producing 63,661 tonnes of wheat from 18,800 hectares of land for all five districts of Rangpur, Gaibandha, Kurigram, Lalmonirhat and Nilphamari in the region this season.
“Wheat farming target marked a very little shortfall following crop diversification and farming of maize, potato and winter vegetables on more lands,” said Additional Director of the DAE for Rangpur region Agriculturist Md. Mahbubur Rahman.
Farmers have finally cultivated wheat on 2,220 hectares in Rangpur, 3,185 hectares in Gaibandha, 7,300 hectares in Kurigram, 1,190 hectares in Lalmonirhat and 4,385 hectares of land in Nilphamari districts in the region.
“Farmers are expecting a bumper wheat production after sowing high quality wheat seeds on their crop lands using conservation agriculture (CA)-based technologies this season,” he said.
The growers have mostly cultivated high yielding wheat varieties like ‘Bijoy’, ‘Pradip’, ‘Sotabdhi’, BARI Gom25, BARI Gom26, BARI Gom27, BARI Gom28 and BARI Gom29 and the harvesting process will begin from April next.
Talking to BSS, Agriculturist Dr. Md. Abdul Mazid, who got the Independence Medal 2018 (food security), expressed satisfaction over expanded cultivation of less irrigation water consuming cereal crop of wheat by farmers in the northern region.
“Farmers are getting excellent wheat production in recent years following cultivation of high yielding, stress-tolerant and high temperature- tolerant wheat varieties adopting CA- based technologies,” he said.Adoption of CA-based strip tillage and bed planting methods in sowing seeds using seeder machines increases wheat yield reducing soil erosion, necessity for irrigation compared to full tillage alongside saving fuel and labor costs.
In the past, wheat production was being affected due to adverse impacts of high temperature on its farming from flowering to ripening stages for late sowing of seeds after harvesting late variety Aman rice and use of low quality local seeds.
“However, farmers are sowing high quality, disease-stress-high temperature tolerant wheat seeds timely using mechanized and low cost CA-based technologies after harvesting short duration Aman rice to get bumper yield in recent years,” Dr. Mazid said.
Talking to BSS, farmers Ashraful Alam, Mohsin Ali, Ariful Islam and Mohibur Rahman of different villages in Rangpur sadar said they are expecting a bumper wheat production as tender wheat plants growing superbly amid favourable climatic conditions.
