Harvesting of Transplanted Aman (T-Aman) rice continues in full swing with excellent yield rate predicting its bumper production in the Rangpur agriculture region this season.
Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) officials here said the government has fixed a target of producing 1,719,231 tonnes of clean Aman rice (2,578,846 tonnes of paddy) from 6,12,451 hectares of land this season.
“Before the recent flood, farmers transplanted Aman rice seedlings on 6,14,295 hectares of land exceeding the fixed farming target by 1,844 hectares of land this time,” said Additional Director of the DAE's Rangpur region Agriculturist Md Tauhidul Ikbal. However, the recent deluge damaged standing Aman rice crop on 1,965 hectares of land in the region. After damage caused by the recent flood, Aman rice plants grew superbly on the rest of 612,330 hectares of land amid excellent climate conditions this season in the region.
“Of them, farmers have cultivated short duration varieties of Aman rice on 63,197 hectares of land which is 10.32 percent against the total cultivated land area of 6,12,330 hectares in the region,” Ikbal said.
Beginning from early October, farmers already completed harvesting of short duration Aman rice during the seasonal lean period of 'Aswin' and 'Kartik' months. “Farmers already harvested Aman rice on 1, 91,715 hectares of land producing 5, 74,769 tonnes of clean rice (8, 62,153 tonnes paddy) in the region by Friday last,” the official said.
Farmers are currently getting an excellent average yield rate of 3.00 tonnes of clean Aman rice from per hectare of land at this stage and expecting to achieve a bumper production of the crop this season.
“After harvesting short duration Aman rice, farmers are sowing seeds of early variety potato, winter vegetables and other Rabi crops on the same land creating huge jobs for farm-labourers and increasing crop intensity,” Ikbal added.
Talking to BSS, farmers Abdul Baten and Manik Mian of Najirdigar village and Golam Mostafa of Najirerhat village in Rangpur Sadar said that they are getting excellent yield rates of Aman rice this season. Farmer Ariful Haque of village Najirdigar here said he has cultivated Aman rice on seven acres of land and is continuing to harvest the crop and getting 35 mounds yield of the crop per acre of land on an average.
“The current market price of newly harvested Aman paddy is varying between Taka 950 and Taka 1,000 per mound (every 40 kg),” Batul said, adding that he would be able to sell his paddy to the government purchasing centres to earn more profits.
Farmer Echhahaq Ali of village Kathihara in Mominpur union of Rangpur Sadar upazila said he would complete harvesting his cultivated Aman rice on his crop land by the first week of December to get a bumper output.
Farm-labourers Abdur Rahman, Ramjan Ali, Mashiur Rahman, Saidul Islam, Khoybar Ali, Morium Nechha and Kakoli Begum of different villages here said they were earning Taka 400 to Taka 500 as wages per day by harvesting Aman rice crop on the fields.
