RANGPUR, Oct 26, 2019 (BSS) – Farmers are preparing to cultivate wheat to
make its fixed target of producing 71,736 tonnes of the crop from 22,050
hectares of land in all five districts of Rangpur agriculture region
successful during this Rabi season.
Officials of the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) said farmers
cultivated wheat on 19,810 hectares of land and produced 63,936 tonnes of
wheatlast season in Rangpur, Gaibandha, Kurigram, Lalmonirhat and Nilphamari
districts in the region.
“We have fixed a target of bringing 22,050 hectares of land under wheat
farming this time, higher by 2,240 hectares of land than the cultivated land
area last season,” Deputy Director of the DAE at its regional office
Agriculturist Md. Moniruzzaman said.
Meanwhile, farmers of all five districts in the division have started
preparing their crop lands for sowing wheat seed after harvesting early
varieties of Transplanted Aman (T-Aman) rice and vegetables cultivated during
the just-ended Kharip-1 season.
The farmers have been cultivating the less irrigation-water consuming
cereal crop of wheat every year with huge enthusiasm after getting better
productions with lucrative market price of the cereal crop in recent years.
“The farmers have just started preparing their crop lands for sowing wheat
seed and the process will get momentum with progress in harvesting T-Aman
rice and early varieties of vegetables allover Rangpur agriculture region
from the next month end,” he said.
The DAE, Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation (BADC), Bangladesh
Agriculture Research Institute (BARI) and other agriculture-related
organisations and institutions have taken steps to make wheat cultivation
programme a success.
Besides, the government has taken steps to ensure supply of quality wheat
seed, latest technologies, fertilisers and other inputs to farmers to promote
cultivation of the highly profitable cereal crop that has huge demand in
local markets.
The farmers are also showing keen interest in cultivating less irrigation
water consuming wheat at reduced costs adopting latest conservation
agriculture-based technologies like strip tillage and bed planning methods to
save groundwater and earn more profits.
“Wheat farming is more profitable than many other Rabi crops and farmers
are getting repeated better productions at reduced farming costs along with
satisfying market price in recent years,” Moniruzzaman added.
Additional Director of the DAE for Rangpur region Agriculturist Muhammad
Ali said the farmers are cultivating the high yielding wheat varieties after
getting excellent yield following less pests’ attacks in recent years.
“The yield rate of wheat is increasing every year as farmers are mostly
cultivating the disease resistant- and stress tolerant-varieties of wheat
adopting conservation agriculture-based latest technologies and proper
agronomic managements,” Ali added.
Talking to BSS, farmers Ariful Haque, Manik Mina, Aiyub Ali, Farhad
Hossain and Sukumar Roy of different villages in Rangpur said they are
preparing their crop lands for sowing wheat seed from the next month this
season.