KHULNA, May 14, 2020 (BSS) – Farmers have so far harvested about 80 percent of boro paddy in the district, getting satisfactory yield with creating a high hope of supplementing the government efforts in meeting food demand of people amid novel coronavirus situation.
Officials of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) said farmers already harvested Boro paddy from 45,952 hectares of land out of total cultivated land area of 57,440 hectares till Wednesday.
Deputy Director (DD) of DAE Agriculturist Pankaj Kanti Majumdar said a target was fixed to produce around 2.73 lakh tonnes of Irri-boro rice from 60,915 hectares of land in all nine upazilas and two metropolis in the district during the current season. But, the farmers finally cultivated Boro paddy on over 57,440 hectares of land this year.
Among them, 29,921 hectares of land have been brought under hybrid variety of the boro paddy, 27,469 hectares of land under high yielding variety and 50 hectares of land under local variety.
Majumdar told BSS that the farmers in the district are getting good yield even in the current coronavirus situation.
A total of 80 percent paddy has already been harvested in the all nine upazilas in district and two metropolises till Wednesday, he added.
He hoped that the harvesting of the rest of paddy will be completed within next seven to10 days.
“We have no shortage of workers to harvest paddy. Because various mills,
factories and shops are closed now and the people serving in those entities are working as labourers in the paddy fields. Besides, CNG-run auto rickshaw drivers and workers of different sectors are also cutting paddy in different places in the district,” he said.
Apart from this, Awami League’s student wing Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL), youth wing Jubo League as well as Krishak League leaders and activists are standing beside farmers in the city and district extending their help in harvesting IRRI-Boro paddy amid ongoing coronavirus pandemic.