Bangladesh ranks 30th in the world in sweet potato production. The present government of Bangladesh wants to bring sweet potato production to 10th places in the world. Department of Agriculture Extension, Kishoreganj has been working relentlessly to implement this initiative of the present government.
The farmers of the sweet potato in the district have already started cultivation. Many of the farmers are showing their interests in cultivation of sweet potato in Kishoreganj, including Beel and haor areas, for a higher demand of the crop with good market price. Low production cost and easy cultivation process made the farmers eager in its cultivation and for this reason its cultivation has increased considerably in Haor areas of the region, sources concerned said.
Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) has set a target of yielding around 31622 metric tonnes sweet potato from around 1630 hectares of land during the current season.
Agriculturist Syed Nurul Awal Taramiah (who got four times Bangabandhu Podok in agricultural activities) mentioned that people of Philippines and Papua New Guinea consume sweet potato as the alternative of rice while in USA and Japan it is used as food widely.
He also mentioned that different types of foods could be made through processing the indigenous potato.
"If we can make the people habituated to sweet potato consumption the nation can reduce its dependence on rice to a greater extent," he said adding that steps should be taken to make the people in general aware in this regard.
Md Saiful Alam, Deputy Director of Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE), Kishoreganj said an initiative has been taken to ensure seed, fertiliser, pesticides and other agro-inputs to the farmers to boost production of potato's in the district this season. In this context, he also said importance should be given to providing adequate training and agro-loans among the farmers.
