Farmers of Chuadanga have been trying to back again to cultivate Aus paddy recently. About 159740.1 metric tons of Aus paddy have been produced by cultivating 43,173 hectares of land this season.
It is learnt that 54034.5 metric tons of Aus paddy have been produced by cultivating 15685 hectares of land in sadar upazila, 28804.5 matric tons by cultivating 7785 hectares of land in Alamdanga upazila, 39160.8 metric tons by cultivating 10584 hectares of land in Damurhuda upazila and 33740.3 metric tons by cultivating 9119 hectares of land in Jibannagar upazila.
It may be mentioned here that once upon a time probably upto 1980 farmers sowed aus paddy in their fields in the month of March. After sowing farmers rushed to their homes, the housewives threw water on the body of the farmers that was traditional culture in the areas. The name of sowed aus paddy’s seeds varieties was Aus Baka, Keke Dhan, Holdemukhi.
Aus paddy is very fine for fry and pantha vat. Besides its taste is very fine. Every farmer sowed this paddy in their fields. Its rice is coarse. As aus paddy farming has regained popularity due to less irrigation water consuming crop. It may be mentioned here that 15685 hectares of land was taken under aus paddy cultivation in sadar upazila, 7785 hectares in Alamdanga upazila, 10,584 hectares of land in Damurhuda upazila, 9,119 hectares in Jibannagar upazila.
Seeds of the paddy were sowed in March and April. Harvesting was started in the month of August and ended in the month of September.
The varieties of BRRI-48, Khato Babu, BRRI-82,83,85, Bina-19, Brac Sathi have been used by the farmers for cultivating aus paddy in the district.
It may be mentioned here that once upon a time no irrigation was required for cultivation of Aus paddy, but now a days its needs to irrigate 3 or 4 times before harvesting. Whereas farmers have been irrigating 30 times in aus paddy fields. Altaf Hossain, a farmer from Mortuzapur in sadar upazila of Chuadanga district said he was cultivated aus paddy on 9 bighas of land. Sufficient aus paddy was produced in the field this season.
Shudhanshu Shekhor, sale representative of Brac said their NGO is supplying Sathi, Rupali and Shakti-2 among farmers for producing aus paddy at the rate of 19-22 maunds per bigha.
Mohammad Ali Hasan, Deputy Director of Agriculture Extension Department told the Bangladesh Post that we need all types of food items. During the last few years farmers did not cultivate aus paddy in the areas. But due to necessity farmers again turn back in their traditional food crop aus paddy production recently.