UNB, Satkhira :
Mustard growers of the district are all happy after having a good harvest of mustard with a high-yielding new variety, ‘Bari Sarisha-14’, this year.
According to agriculture officials, the farmers here harvested 1.5 metric tons of mustard per hectare by cultivating the new variety, which is double than the local variety ‘Tori-7’.
A field camp on the mustard harvest was recently held at Bharashimla field in Kaliganj upazila to promote the new variety-‘Bari Sarisha-14’.
As soil of the area has been found slat-tolerant one, farmers have the opportunity to make money by easily cultivating this new mustard variety, the agriculture officials said.
As part of the expansion of mustard cultivation, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) encouraged the farmers to bring their lands under ‘Bari Sarisha-14’ variety.
Dr Md Abdur Rouf, joint secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, said the cultivation of ‘Bari Sarisha-14’ variety is easy as the farmers can harvest their crop within 75-80 days at minimum cost.
“It can be cultivated after harvesting Aman paddy as the farmers won’t face any problem in cultivating Boro paddy,” he said while speaking during the camp.
Bottle gourd farming on fisheries lands gaining popularity
Bottle gourd farming on fallow lands of fisheries is gaining popularity in the district due to its less production cost.
“The abandoned lands beside fisheries are fertile, which is the main reason behind the growing production of this vegetable,” said farmer Ayub Ali Sana of Kamarali village in Kalaroa upazila.
He said they are cultivating bottle gourds on such lands throughout the year and they even do not need to use any pesticide as these places are free from insects. Each gourd is now selling in between Tk 20 to Tk 40, Ayub Ali said adding that it is possible to produce gourds worth about Tk 20,000 to Tk 25,000 per acre.
Kazi Abdul Mannan, Deputy Director at the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) office of the district, said this time farmers cultivated bottle gourds on about 741.316 acres of land of the 1606.18 of fallow lands in fisheries.