Braving the coronavirus pandemic and damages caused by recent floods, farmers produced an all-time record 1.83 lakh tonnes of clean Aush rice (2.75 lakh tonnes of paddy) this season in Rangpur agriculture region, reports BSS.
Officials of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) said farmers achieved the fixed production target of 1.83 lakh tonnes of Aush rice despite damage of the crop on 4,597.68 hectares of land caused by floods this year in the region.
“The farmers achieved the record Aush rice output following various government programmes despite huge losses caused by recent floods,” Additional Director of the DAE for Rangpur region Agriculturist Muhammad Ali told BSS.
The programmes included distribution of special intensives in terms of Aush rice seed and fertilisers among farmers for expanding cultivation of Aush rice and providing training, technical support and conducting motivational campaigns.
“Earlier, the DAE had fixed a target of cultivating Aush rice on 59,675 heaters of land to produce over 1.83 lakh tonnes of clean rice (2.75-lakh tonnes of paddy) for the region this season,” Ali said.
However, the farmers had brought 63,690 hectares of land under Aush rice cultivation in the region, higher by 4,150 hectares or 6.73 percent than the fixed farming target for the season.
Of them, farmers had cultivated the hybrid varieties of Aush rice on 12,638 hectares of land, high yielding varieties on 50,902 hectares and local varieties of Aush rice on 350 hectares of land.
However, recent floods damaged standing Aush rice crop on 4,597.68 hectares of land in the flood-affected areas of Rangpur, Nilphamari, Kurigram, Gaibandha and Lalmonirhat districts of the region.
After completing harvest on the rest of 59,092.30 hectares of land by Wednesday, farmers finally produced over 1.83 lakh tonnes of Aush rice with the yield rate of 3.10 tonnes per hectare and achieved the fixed production target.
“If the standing Aush rice crop on 4,597.68 hectares of and were not damaged by floods, the total production of the crop might be over 1.97 lakh tones in terms of clean rice (2.96 lakh tonnes of paddy) this time,” Ali said.
In the last year of 2019, farmers produced 1.48-lakh tonnes of clean Aush rice and 1.23-lakh tonnes of clean Aush rice in the previous year of 2018 in Rangpur agriculture region.
Talking to BSS, farmers said they are happy getting bumper Aush rice output and excellent market price between Taka 800 and 900 per mound of paddy (every 40 kilogram) of the crop.
Farmers Echhahaq Alim Ayub Hossain, Akram Hossain and Ariful Haque of different villages in Rangpur said they cultivated Aush rice successfully, completed its harvest and got excellent yield with lucrative market price this year.
Talking to BSS, Agriculturist Dr Md Abdul Mazid, who got the Independence Award 2018 Medal in food security category, told BSS that Aush rice farming is increasing following various effective steps taken by the present government in the last 12 years.
He said cultivation of short duration Aush rice should be increased further using unused seasonal rainwater during May, June and July as an additional crop on the lands that remain fallow during the off season.
“After harvesting Aush rice by mid-August, farmers are easily cultivating Aman rice on the same land to further increase rice production for attaining sustainable national food security amid changing climate,” Dr Mazid added.