RANGPUR, Oct 18, 2019 (BSS) – The Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE)
has fixed a target of producing over 23.57-lakh tonnes of potato from 91,400
hectares of land for all five districts under Rangpur agriculture region
during this Rabi season.
The DAE said farmers have already started sowing potato seed after
harvesting short duration and early varieties of Transplanted Aman (T-Aman)
rice to earn more profits from the next month in the region.
Deputy Director of the DAE at its regional office Md Moniruzzaman told BSS
that sowing of potato seed will get momentum with the progress in Aman rice
harvesting and continue till the end of December next.
The DAE, Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation (BADC), Bangladesh
Agriculture Research Institute (BARI) and other agriculture-related
departments are assisting farmers to make the fixed potato farming programme
successful.
“The tender plants of early variety potato are growing superbly in all five
districts of the agriculture region,” he said, adding that farmers have
already sowed early variety potato seed on over 3,500 hectares of land.
Farmers Ariful Haque Batul, Manik Mina, Echhahaq Ali and Ayub Ali of
different villages in Rangpur Sadar upazila said they completed sowing early
varieties of potato seed after harvesting short duration Aman rice last week.
Farmers Noor Mohammad, Asgar Ali, Karim Uddin and Lokman Hossain said they
are expecting to harvest early varieties of potato from mid-November after
sowing seed in last September to get better profits this season.
However, farmers Azizul Islam, Aminur Rahman and Bhutto Mian of Chandanpat
union in Rangpur sadar upazila said they would start sowing late variety
potato seed on their croplands after harvesting Aman rice from late November
this year.
Vegetable trader Hafizur Rahman at Rangpur City Bazar said early varieties
of potato will appear soon in local markets bringing lucrative price to
farmers.
Additional Director of the DAE for Rangpur region Agriculturist Muhammad
Ali said BADC and other organisations are providing quality potato seed to
farmers along with ensuring smooth supply of fertilisers to make potato
cultivation programme a success.
“The filed-level officials of the agriculture-related organisations are
providing essential suggestions and technologies to farmers for properly
sowing of potato seed and nursing tender potato plants to get maximum yield,”
Ali added.
He said farmers produced an all-time record quantity of over 23.20-lakh
tonnes of potato from 93,024 hectares of land in all five districts of
Rangpur agriculture region last year exceeding the fixed cultivation target
by 1,404 hectares of land.
“The produced 23.20-lakh tonnes of potato were higher by 3.96-lakh tonnes
or 20.58 percent than the fixed production target of 19.24-lakh tonnes of the
crop from 91,620 hectares of land last season in the region,” he said.
Ali hoped that farmers might cross the fixed farming target of potato to
get another record yield of the major crop during this Rabi season in the
region.