The Ministry of Agriculture is working relentlessly to use every inch of land for growing crops as directed by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to deal squarely with any food crisis due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The timely decision and its implementation by the ministry have made it possible to collect more Boro crops than the target set even in the face of the coronavirus disaster.
Attempts are now being made to increase the production of Aus and Aman. At the field level, various inputs including Aus paddy seeds, Aman paddy seeds, jute seeds, fertilizers, and irrigation water have been distributed among the farmers as incentives , said Ministry Information Officer Kamrul Islam.
Due to the timely steps taken by the ministry, Aus has been cultivated in 1336566 hectares of land in the current 2020-21 financial year which is higher than the target (100.52%).
The target was 1329600 hectares. And this time more than two lakh hectares of land has been earmarked for increased production as compared to last year. In the last 2019-20 financial year, Aus was cultivated in 1134000 hectares of land and the production was 3012000 metric tonnes.
This year's production target has been set at 3644800 metric tonnes. As a result, it is expected that the Aus production will increase by several lakh tonnes this time as compared to the last financial year.
In order to increase Aus cultivation, 383434 farmers have been given seeds and fertilizer under agricultural incentives and a total of 465834 farmers have been given agricultural inputs including seeds.
Field level agricultural officials have encouraged farmers to step up their efforts to increase production. In addition, due to timely rain, the weather was favourable for cultivation and farmers got interested in paddy cultivation as Boro paddy fetched good prices.
Besides, the proposed target for Aman cultivation in the fiscal year 2020-21 is about 5900000 hectares and the production target is 15.6 million metric tonnes of rice.
In order to increase Aman production, expansion of modern / Ufshi varieties and increase in area of hybrid varieties is being done by reducing the cultivation of low yielding varieties.
Along with this, initiatives are being taken including ensuring availability of quality seeds, ensuring balanced fertilizer, adequate irrigation system, reduction of irrigation cost.
This is the first time the government has provided seed subsidy to increase production of Aman.
A subsidy of Tk 20 crore has been given for the sale of 19,500 metric tonnes of Aman paddy seeds of BADC at the farmer level from the Ministry of Agriculture. And BADC has sold Ufshi Aman paddy seeds at Tk 10 per kg and hybrid seeds at Tk 50 per kg less than their declared selling price.
