About 1,97,751.89 metric tons of Aus paddy has been produced by cultivating on 38,699 hectares of land in four upazilas of Chuadanga district this season. It is an additional crop for meeting the demand of paddy in the district, sources added.
According to Chuadanga Agriculture Extension Department, 73,890.60 metric tons of Aush Paddy has been produced on 14,460 hectares of land in Sadar upazila, 39,045.51 metric tons on 7,641 hectares of land in Alamdanga upazila, 44,191.28 metric tons of Aush paddy on 8,648 hectares of land in Damurhuda upazila and 40,624.50 metric tons of Aush paddy on 7,950 hectares of land in Jibannagar upazila.
Aush paddy is a major cereal crop of Chuadanga district now. The paddy which are sown during the month of March-April and harvested September every year.
Farmer are expanding Aush paddy cultivation as an additional crop during the off-season after Boro paddy harvest and before transplantation of Aman paddy seedling to enhance paddy production every year in recent times, it is learnt.
Aush paddy cultivation has low production cost. Slight irrigation is required. At the same time the application of pesticides and fertilizers is limited. Moreover this time the stimulus for production of Aush paddy has increased due to getting good price for selling, farmers added.
There are two types of Aush paddy which are local Aush paddy and another high yielding variety (HYV) Aus. From time immemorial Aush paddy which is grown in the country is called local Aus. Generally this type of paddy does not need irrigation and is purely dependent on natural rainfall. If weather remains dry, plants sometimes demand irrigation.
Out of total cultivated land, over 8,000 hectares of land were cultivated Aush paddy under JK project as easily cultivators got irrigation facility through the project. Outside of JK project farmers used their own shallow machine putting water in Aush paddy field when needed to irrigation, Deputy Director of Agriculture Extension Department Bevash Chandra Saha said,
Deputy Director of Chuadanga Agriculture Extension Department Bevash Chandra Saha told this correspondent, cultivation of Aush paddy has become popular following various effective steps taken by the government.