Bumper jute production has brought smile on the faces of farmers of all the three upazilas in Narail as they got fair price for the crop in the current season.
The cash crop has been cultivated on more land in the district this year compared to last year.
Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) sources said, a target was set to cultivate Jute on 23,498 hectares of land in the district with an expected production of 3 lakh 5 thousand 708 bales of jute. This year, jute has been cultivated on 68 hectares more land than last year. Last year, jute was cultivated on 23,430 hectares of land. Farmers have focused on jute cultivation to bring back the golden tradition of jute.
DAE sources said, jute has been cultivated on a total 23,498 hectares of land in three upazilas of the district. Upazila wise break up: 6,925 hectares of land cultivated in Sadar upazila, 12,165 hectares of land in Lohagora upazila and 4,408 hectares of land cultivated in Kalia upazila.
The average yield of jute per bigha is 8 maunds. Farmers said, jute cultivation costs 10 to 11 thousand taka on one bigha of land. The profit excluding expenses is 14 to 16 thousand taka per bigha.
Nipu Majumder, Deputy Assistant Agriculture Officer in Narail DAE said that jute varieties O-9897, GRO-524 and BJRI Tosha-8 have been cultivated in different areas of the district.
Deputy Director of the DAE Narail, Muhammad Arifur Rahman said the soil of the district is highly suitable for jute cultivation. Use of environmental friendly products is increasing in the country and abroad day by day.
Farmers are benefiting from getting additional price and are becoming interested in jute cultivation.
To bring back the tradition of golden jute in three upazilas of the district, initiatives have been taken by the Agriculture Department to encourage jute cultivation on cultivable land.
As an incentive to increase the jute cultivation, a total of 4,000 small and marginal farmers in the district were provided with one kilogram of seeds, 5 kilograms of DAP and 5 kilograms of MOP fertilizer free of cost this season.
