BSS, Rangpur
Braving the Covid-19 pandemic situation, farmers here have produced an all-time record 1.94 lakh tonnes of clean Aush rice (2.91 lakh tonnes of paddy) in the Rangpur agriculture region, reports BSS.
Officials of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) said farmers exceeded the fixed production target of 1.80 lakh tonnes of Aush rice by 0.14 lakh tonnes or 7.78 percent despite little shortfall against the fixed farming target this season.
“Various pragmatic steps of the government have inspired farmers in expanding cultivation of Aush rice resulting in achieving the all-time record output of the crop,” Additional Director of the DAE’s Rangpur region Bidhu Bhusan Ray told BSS.
The steps included distribution of special incentives, specially seeds 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 1.83 lakh tonnes of clean rice (2.74-lakh tonnes of paddy) for the region this season,” Ray said. However, farmers had brought 62,090 hectares of land, less by only 109 hectares against the fixed farming target, under Aush rice cultivation this season in all five districts of the region.
“After completing harvest of Aush rice recently, farmers produced 1.94 lakh tonnes of clean rice at an excellent average yield rate of 3.13 tonnes per hectare of land,” Ray added.
Farmers are expanding Aush rice cultivation as an additional crop during the off-season after Boro rice harvest and before transplantation of Aman rice seedlings on the same land to enhance rice production every year.
“Production of Aush rice has increased consistently during the last eight consecutive years in Rangpur region, contributing to ensuring food security despite adverse impacts of climate change,” Ray said.
Earlier, farmers produced 51,722 tonnes of Aush rice from 17,523 hectares of land in 2013 while 59,685 tonnes of rice from 19,205 hectares in 2014 and 61,676 tonnes of Aush rice from 21,063 hectares of land in 2015 in the region.
They produced 65,505 tonnes of Aush rice from 21,751 hectares of land in 2016 while 73,543 tonnes of Aush rice from 24,717 hectares in 2017 and 1.23 lakh tonnes of Aush rice from 40, 618 hectares of land in 2018.
“Farmers produced 1.48 lakh tonnes of clean Aush rice from 47,552 hectares of land in 2019 and produced a previous record quantity of 1.83 lakh tonnes of clean Aush rice from 59,092 hectares of land in 2020 in the region,” Ray said.
Talking to BSS, farmers Morshedul Haque and Fazlur Rahman of Rangpur said they got bumper output of Aush crop and its excellent market prices between Taka 1,000 and 1,150 per mound (every 40 kilogram) of the paddy. Agriculturist Dr Md Abdul Mazid, who got the Independence Award 2018 Medal in food security category, told BSS that Aush rice farming is expanding remarkably following various effective steps taken by the government in the last 12 years.
“After harvesting Aush rice by mid-August, farmers are easily cultivating Aman rice on the same land to further increase rice production,” he added.
