Rajshahi farmers are busy harvesting, segregating, drying and transporting the cereal crop amid the suitable climatic condition, including its vast Barind and Char (riverbed) areas, for the last couple of weeks.
Maize farming brings a smile to farmers' faces in Rajshahi as they are becoming financially solvent by cultivating the crop, meeting its growing demand of the consumers, particularly the poultry, dairy and beef fattening farmers.
Farmers are delighted with the bumper yield and cherished market price of the newly harvested maize everywhere in the Rajshahi region.
Polash Hossain, 45, a maize farmer of Harishankar Pur village under Godagari upazila, has cultivated maize on two bighas of land this year expecting that he will be benefited from the crop as both yield and market price are lucrative.
Hossain said maize grain is being sold at Taka 725 to 730 per mound in the local market at present.
Sarwar Sheikh, 48, another farmer of Char Asariadaha village under the same upazila, said many of his co-villagers are seen harvesting 45 to 50 maunds of yield from each bigha of char lands on an average.
Shahadat Hossain, a farmer of Chowbaria village under Godagari upazila, said he has brought two bighas of land under the maize farming during the current season. He is very happy with cultivating various less-water consuming crops like maize.
He said he had to face many troubles to manage water for irrigation on Boro fields but the maize cultivation takes less water. Hossain said wheat cultivation on per bigha of land needs at least Taka 8,000 and the yield is 14 to 16 maunds. On the contrary, maize farming on one bigha of land needs Taka 6,500 and the yield is at least 20 to 25 maunds. So, he cultivated maize on 15 bighas of land this season.
Most of the farmers are happy with the sale price, he added.
More than 1,25,8,000 community people of 266,000 households are being motivated and encouraged towards farming of various less-irrigation consuming crops including maize to reduce the pressure on underground water in the Barind area with the intervention of the 'Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM)' project.
The project is being implemented in around 1,280 drought-hit villages under 39 Union Councils and three municipalities of eight upazilas in Rajshahi, Naogaon and Chapainawabganj districts since 2014 supported by Switzerland, said Jahangir Alam Khan, coordinator of the project.
Sub-Assistant Agriculture Officer Atanu Sarker said maize farming has been gaining popularity here as many people are seen humming towards the cash crop farming while it has been giving them better yield and lucrative market price.
Mozder Hossain, deputy director of the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE), said there was no scarcity of seeds this time. So, huge quantities of seeds were distributed among the farmers and they timely completed sowing it, he added.
Over 5.58 lakh tonnes of maize yield are expected to be produced from 52,209 hectares of land in all eight districts under Rajshahi division during the current harvesting season.
DAE has set the target of producing around 3.25 lakh tonnes of maize from 29,094 hectares of land in four districts of Rajshahi Agricultural Zone while 2.33 lakh tonnes from 23,115 hectares of land in four other districts of Bogura Agricultural Zone.
Shamsul Wadud, additional director of the DAE, here said diversified steps including distribution of incentives among farmers with providing need-based training were taken to attain the production target. He said 22,050 small and marginal farmers were given seeds and fertilizers worth around Taka 90.4 lakh free of cost for the maize farming under the government's agricultural incentive programme.
Chief Scientific Officer of Bangladesh Wheat and Maize Research Institute (BWMRI) Dr Ilias Hossain said maize is being used in the preparation of various nutritional foods like corn-well, corn-flex, poultry and animal feed and fodder and in several industrial products as well.
BWMRI has released five high yielding maize varieties and two of those-BARI Hybrid Bhutta-12 and 13- are both heat and drought tolerant. So, these are becoming popular in the growers' level of the region.
The demand for the crop is on the rise with the increase of the poultry and poultry birds farms as it contains huge Vitamin-A, he pointed out. Dr Hossain said maize is highly beneficial to human health.
