BSS, Rajshahi :
Wheat cultivation target has been set on 1.14 lakh hectares of land in Rajshahi, Natore, Chapainawabganj and Naogaon districts, an official of Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) told BSS.
Fazlur Rahman, Additional Director of DAE, said he is very much optimistic about attaining the target as farmers are returning to wheat cultivation, encouraged by higher yields and good prices in recent years. Wheat farming is now on rising trend in the region for the last couple of years, he added.
Agriculturist Rahman attributed the revival of cultivation to rising popularity of some stress-tolerant high-yielding varieties (HYVs) of wheat, released by the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) in recent years.
Since 2009, BARI released six HYVs of wheat, most of which are heat- tolerant. One variety, BARI Gom 26, is heat-tolerant, while some others mature in a short period. It’s also more tolerant to leaf blight and leaf rush-disease with additional advantage of higher yield.
So far, wheat cultivation has expanded everywhere in eight districts under Rajshahi division, said Dr Ilias Hossain, Principal Scientific Officer of Regional Wheat Research Station under BARI.
The recent varieties are better resistant to pest attacks than the previous popular varieties, he said, adding that they can also tolerate stress, particularly heat.
Dr Ilias said farmers of the Barind area were found more confident in wheat farming on more new lands, due to the water-stress condition, as wheat is a less-water consuming plant.
“We have developed 300 projection plots on farmers’ field for boosting seed production of the latest varieties during the current season, besides various other motivational campaigns and training programmes,” he added.
He opined that there is no alternative to promoting modern technology and using high yielding wheat seeds to reduce dependency on food import to meet the internal demand.
Wheat plays an important role to ensure food security as its consumption is increasing day by day. But, Bangladesh produces hardly 10 lakh metric tons of wheat against the demand of around 45 lakh tonnes annually, he stated.
More support from international research organizations including CIMMYT has become necessary for germ-plasm especially heat-tolerant variety adoption together with yield gap minimization in the farmers field.
Wheat cultivation target has been set on 1.14 lakh hectares of land in Rajshahi, Natore, Chapainawabganj and Naogaon districts, an official of Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) told BSS.
Fazlur Rahman, Additional Director of DAE, said he is very much optimistic about attaining the target as farmers are returning to wheat cultivation, encouraged by higher yields and good prices in recent years. Wheat farming is now on rising trend in the region for the last couple of years, he added.
Agriculturist Rahman attributed the revival of cultivation to rising popularity of some stress-tolerant high-yielding varieties (HYVs) of wheat, released by the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) in recent years.
Since 2009, BARI released six HYVs of wheat, most of which are heat- tolerant. One variety, BARI Gom 26, is heat-tolerant, while some others mature in a short period. It’s also more tolerant to leaf blight and leaf rush-disease with additional advantage of higher yield.
So far, wheat cultivation has expanded everywhere in eight districts under Rajshahi division, said Dr Ilias Hossain, Principal Scientific Officer of Regional Wheat Research Station under BARI.
The recent varieties are better resistant to pest attacks than the previous popular varieties, he said, adding that they can also tolerate stress, particularly heat.
Dr Ilias said farmers of the Barind area were found more confident in wheat farming on more new lands, due to the water-stress condition, as wheat is a less-water consuming plant.
“We have developed 300 projection plots on farmers’ field for boosting seed production of the latest varieties during the current season, besides various other motivational campaigns and training programmes,” he added.
He opined that there is no alternative to promoting modern technology and using high yielding wheat seeds to reduce dependency on food import to meet the internal demand.
Wheat plays an important role to ensure food security as its consumption is increasing day by day. But, Bangladesh produces hardly 10 lakh metric tons of wheat against the demand of around 45 lakh tonnes annually, he stated.
More support from international research organizations including CIMMYT has become necessary for germ-plasm especially heat-tolerant variety adoption together with yield gap minimization in the farmers field.
