BSS, Rajshahi :
Prospect of pulse including chickpea farming is very bright in the region as its topography along with soil condition is suitable for the cereal crops.
“There are enormous prospects of harvesting additional 10,000 tonnes of pulse every year in the region,” said Dr Roish Uddin Chowdhury, director of Pulse Research Center (PRC), an entity of Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute (BARI).
Talking to BSS here today, he said PRC has been putting in its level best efforts to enhance the pulse farming acreage after the best uses of existing
prospects in the region including its vast Barind tract comprising Rajshahi, Naogaon and Chapainawabganj districts.
Farmers are being encouraged and motivated towards promoting the developed high yielding varieties of pulses like chickpea, lentil and grasspea for boosting yield to meet the gradually mounting demands of pulse side by side with making the farmers benefited.
“We are gradually expanding the modern varieties developed by PRC and BARI through establishing demonstration blocks in farmers’ fields in a massive way,” Dr Roish Chowdhury added.
In the current season, lentil demonstration block on 38 hectares of land, chickpea projection on 27 hectares and grasspea on 16 hectares were established only in the drought-prone Barind area taking its water-stressed condition under consideration.
Dr Roish Uddin Chowdhury viewed around 20,000 bigha of land remain fallow for more than three months after harvesting of transplanted Aman paddy every year.
There has been a bright scope of bringing the huge land under the threepulses farming through the best uses of those alongside increasing cropping intensity amid the current water-stress condition.
To make the farming popular and profitable at the growers’ level, the PRC has started conducting various programmes including farmers’ motivation and training, field demonstration and supplying necessary inputs like seed the years ahead.
Chowdhury said the PRC has planned to bring 1,000 bigha of land under the above mentioned pulses cultivation at preliminary stage. “We will impart training to 1,200 farmers to elevate their knowledge of how to cultivate the cash crop in modern methods,” he said.
Referring to various salient features of the cash crop and immense prospect of those, he says no additional cost for fertilizer, pesticide and irrigation is needed to cultivate the sort-term cash crops.
As part of the efforts for expanding the varieties, a farmers’ field day titled “Block Demonstration on BARI Chhola-5 variety and its Modern Farming” was organized at Bashnitala area under Godagari Upazila with participation of more than 50 grassroots farmers both male and female on Friday afternoon.
PRC and On Farm Research Division (OFRD) under BARI jointly organized the field day programme in association with International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and International Agricultural Research for Dry Area (ICARDA) project.
PRC Director Dr Roish Uddin Chowdhury and its Chief Scientific Officer Dr Sheikh Mostofa Zaman addressed the meeting as chief and special guests respectively.
Prospect of pulse including chickpea farming is very bright in the region as its topography along with soil condition is suitable for the cereal crops.
“There are enormous prospects of harvesting additional 10,000 tonnes of pulse every year in the region,” said Dr Roish Uddin Chowdhury, director of Pulse Research Center (PRC), an entity of Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute (BARI).
Talking to BSS here today, he said PRC has been putting in its level best efforts to enhance the pulse farming acreage after the best uses of existing
prospects in the region including its vast Barind tract comprising Rajshahi, Naogaon and Chapainawabganj districts.
Farmers are being encouraged and motivated towards promoting the developed high yielding varieties of pulses like chickpea, lentil and grasspea for boosting yield to meet the gradually mounting demands of pulse side by side with making the farmers benefited.
“We are gradually expanding the modern varieties developed by PRC and BARI through establishing demonstration blocks in farmers’ fields in a massive way,” Dr Roish Chowdhury added.
In the current season, lentil demonstration block on 38 hectares of land, chickpea projection on 27 hectares and grasspea on 16 hectares were established only in the drought-prone Barind area taking its water-stressed condition under consideration.
Dr Roish Uddin Chowdhury viewed around 20,000 bigha of land remain fallow for more than three months after harvesting of transplanted Aman paddy every year.
There has been a bright scope of bringing the huge land under the threepulses farming through the best uses of those alongside increasing cropping intensity amid the current water-stress condition.
To make the farming popular and profitable at the growers’ level, the PRC has started conducting various programmes including farmers’ motivation and training, field demonstration and supplying necessary inputs like seed the years ahead.
Chowdhury said the PRC has planned to bring 1,000 bigha of land under the above mentioned pulses cultivation at preliminary stage. “We will impart training to 1,200 farmers to elevate their knowledge of how to cultivate the cash crop in modern methods,” he said.
Referring to various salient features of the cash crop and immense prospect of those, he says no additional cost for fertilizer, pesticide and irrigation is needed to cultivate the sort-term cash crops.
As part of the efforts for expanding the varieties, a farmers’ field day titled “Block Demonstration on BARI Chhola-5 variety and its Modern Farming” was organized at Bashnitala area under Godagari Upazila with participation of more than 50 grassroots farmers both male and female on Friday afternoon.
PRC and On Farm Research Division (OFRD) under BARI jointly organized the field day programme in association with International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and International Agricultural Research for Dry Area (ICARDA) project.
PRC Director Dr Roish Uddin Chowdhury and its Chief Scientific Officer Dr Sheikh Mostofa Zaman addressed the meeting as chief and special guests respectively.
