Hossainpur (Kishoreganj) Correspondent :
Wheat cultivation is gradually disappearing from the list of farmers in Hossainpur upazila of Kishoreganj. No one is taking risk in wheat cultivation due to low profit, labor crisis, hostile weather and lack of good quality seeds. As the price of paddy has gone up and vegetable cultivation has become more profitable, farmers have resorted to cultivating other crops instead of wheat.
Nazrul Islam, 48, of Charkati Hari village, said, “Wheat yield is not good. There are no people for cutting and threshing. Due to the increase in the price of paddy, we have stopped cultivating wheat.
Nekbar Ali (65), another farmer from Charkati Hari village, said, “I used to cultivate brinjal to eat wheat.” I have sold eggplant for a lot of money.
According to the Upazila Agriculture Department, the amount of cultivable land in the upazila is 12,985 hectares. Of this, about 7,000 hectares is suitable land for wheat cultivation. But wheat has been cultivated in 60 hectares in 2014, 6 hectares in 2015, 75 hectares in 2016, 60 hectares in 2016, 56 hectares in 2016, 56 hectares in 2019, 55 hectares in 2020 and 50 hectares in 2021.
Farmers and the Upazila Agriculture Office say farmers have lost interest in wheat cultivation due to labor crisis, rat infestation, threshing problems, lack of good seeds and hostile weather. Instead of wheat, they tend to cultivate other crops.
Farmer Bachchu of Char Hajipur village said, he has cultivated wheat in his 20 decimal land. But the earnings of wheat are very small. Siddique, a farmer from Saheb’s Char village, said, good quality wheat seeds are not available. As a result good yield cannot be expected without good quality seeds.
