BSS, Khulna :
Farmers in this southwestern district of Khulna have launched a massive jute cultivation campaign covering an estimated 2,000 hectares of land this year.
Agriculture extension department (DAE) officials said they set a production target of over 20,000 bales of jutes in nine upazilas of the district during the coming season taking extensive measures to encourage farmers to cultivate the natural fiber in view of its growing global demands for environmental reasons. A DAE official said to supplement the campaign the state-owned Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation (BADC) was selling high quality seeds like Bankim, O-9897, Krisan 0524 among the farmers through authorized dealers across the district.
“We, meanwhile, took up necessary steps to train the growers and make available for them fertilizers, pesticides and other agro inputs at fair prices,” DAE official Abdul Quyum said. He said over 1,770 hectares of land were already bought under cultivation and the rests of the targeted areas was expected to be cultivated in next few days.
DAE’s director for the region Kazi Anisuzzaman said the incentives and prices offered visibly generated huge interest among them to grow jute this year.
But, he said, intrusion of saline waters in the region in the past years appeared as a major challenge to keep the land fertility. Last year the farmers produced 23,422 bales jute on 2,345 hectares of land.
