BSS, Rangpur :
Bumper wheat production is likely in the northern region this season as the farmers have already completed over 42 percent of harvest on an average with excellent yield rates, official sources said.
According to the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) sources, the government has fixed a target of producing over 8.13 lakh tonnes wheat from 2.66 lakh hectares land for the current 2013-2014 Rabi season in the northern Bangladesh.
However, the enthusiastic farmers have finally cultivated the crop on over 2.917 lakh hectares land this season, which is 9.4 percent or 25,000 hectares higher than the fixed farming target for the region.
Horticulture Specialist of DAE Khandaker Md Mesbahul Islam said the fixed wheat production target for the northern region is 63.50 percent of the total national production target of 12.81 lakh tonnes from 4.20 lakh hectares land this season.
The farmers are getting an excellent average wheat yield rate higher than the targeted average yield rate of around 3.05 tonnes per hectare.
“The wheat production might be around 9.60 lakh tonnes, higher by over 18 percent than the fixed production target 8.13 tonnes as the farmers are getting higher yield rate after exceeding the farming target this time,” Mesbahul Islam hoped.
The farmers have mostly cultivated high yielding BARI Gom 26, Pradip, Bijoy, Protiva, Sotabdi, Sourav, Gaurab, Swarna and other wheat varieties using the latest conservation agriculture (CA)-based technologies this season.
According to DAE sources, wheat production has been increasing every year in the northern region where the farmers produced over 9.71 lakh tonnes wheat during the 2012-2013 and 7.63 lakh tonnes during 2011-2012 Rabi seasons.
Talking to BSS, farmers Abul Kalam, Kamal Hossain, Samir Kumar, Ivy Begum and Ahammad Ali said they have already completed harvest and achieved average yield rate of 3.35 tonnes wheat per hectare.
They thanked to the government for fixing wheat purchasing rate at Taka 27 per kg and added that they are now preparing to supply their produced wheat to the local purchasing centres to earn better profits this year.
Deputy Director of DAE Feroz said the farmers are getting excellent yield of high yielding varieties of wheat they cultivated using the latest conservation agriculture technologies under favourable weather this year.
Associate Director Agriculture of BRAC International (South Asia & Africa) Dr M A Mazid said the country could be benefited by over Taka 225 crore through large-scale farming of BARI Gom 26 using CA-based technologies to get up to 4.2 tonnes yield rate per hectare.
He predicted brighter prospect for increasing wheat yield at reduced costs adopting the CA-based technologies to save huge seed, irrigation water, power and fuel to ensure food security amid adverse climate.
