Joypurhat, the second largest potato producing district in the country, has set a target of cultivating potatoes in 40500 hectares of land during the current season.
Local agricultural department has undertaken a comprehensive programme to make potato cultivation a success. Potato planting has been completed in 90 per cent or 38000 hectors of land, sources of local agricultural department said.
According to sources, the stock of fertilizer in the district is sufficient to make the potato cultivation successful. In the month of November, the total amount of fertilizer is 3,757 mt, TSP 2,366 mt, MOP 3,350 mt and DAP 2,175 mt. With this, the demand for the month of December includes urea 5345 metric tons, TSP 1,318 Mt, MOP 1931 mt and DAP 1788 mt is already preserved.
Although some dishonest potato seed traders were trying to create a seed crisis for making more profit, the strict intervention of the administration has stopped it.
Shahidullah Al Mamun of BADC’s seed marketing Bogura and Joypurhat region, said that the advance varieties 'A' grade potato seed is fixed at Tk 1,880 per maund, while the B grade is Tk 1,840 per maund for sale to the farmers.
A total of 1800 tons of potato seeds have been allocated at dealer level and 400 tons at farmer level in the district. Due to good quality, BADC cannot supply the required quantity of potato seeds, but steps will be taken to increase the allocation in future, he said.
S M Meftahul Bari, Deputy Director of Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) in Joypurhat, said that to make potato cultivation successful deputy assistant agriculture officers are providing round-the-clock monitoring and advice to the farmers including training at the farmer level. Potatoes of Joypurhat were exported to nine countries-Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Japan, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Naples and Russia last year due to their high quality.
In Joypurhat district, known as the ancient Barind region, potato is being cultivated on more land than the target.
Last year, potatoes were grown in 38,530 hectors of land. The potato production was 8 lakh 15 thousand mt. Farmers are cultivating potatoes- Ganalo, Mujika, diamonds, Asterisks, Cardinal, and Rajoto varieties because of the good yield. In 15 cold storages in in the district about 1.5 lakh metric tons of potato can be stored, sources of agricultural department said.
