RAJSHAHI, June 7, 2020 (BSS) – Around 1.88 lakh tonnes of summer maize yield is expected to be produced from 24,452 hectares of land during the current Kharip-1 season in all eight districts under Rajshahi division.
Everywhere in the region, farmers are passing their busiest time in harvesting the cereal crop with good yield at present. They have completed around eighty percent of the harvesting on an average, said Dr Ilias Hossain, Principal Scientific Officer of Bangladesh Wheat and Maize Research Institute (BWMRI).
The rest twenty percent is expected to be completed by mid of this month as the farmers are intending to cultivate transplanted aman paddy on the same land after harvesting maize, he added.
Quoting the field level yield assessment he said the farmers are getting around six to seven tonnes of yield from per hectare of land which is higher to some extent than the previous season.
Dr Hossain said maize farming has been gaining popularity as many people are seen humming towards the cash crop farming as it has been giving them better yield and lucrative market price in the region including its vast Barind tract for the last couple of years.
Azad Hossain, a farmer of Pirijpur village in Godagari upazila, has brought two bighas of land under the maize farming during the current season.
He along with many other fellow farmers expects better yield as suitable weather prevails here now.
Islam got 15 to 17 mounds yield from per bigha of land and sold at Taka 600 to 650 per mound in last harvesting season.
Sohrab Ali, another farmer of Bagdhani village in Paba upazila, said he is very happy with cultivating various less-water consuming crops like maize. He said he had to face many troubles to manage water for irrigation on boro field but the maize cultivation takes less water.
He said wheat cultivation on per bigha of land needs at least Taka 8,000, and the yield is 14 to 16 maunds. On the contrary, maize farming on one bigha of land needs Taka 6,500, and the yield is 20 to 25 maunds. So, he cultivated maize on 15 bighas of land this season.
Another farmer Karimul Haque of Dharmahata village used to cultivate Boro paddy during last 30 years. But, this season, he has cultivated maize on 10 bighas of land instead of Boro paddy.
Dr Shakhawat Hossain, Senior Scientific Officer of Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute (BARI, told BSS that maize cultivation both in rabi and kharif seasons in the region has been increasing gradually as the farmers are showing more interest to this crop cultivation.
He said there was no scarcity of seeds this time as huge quantities of the same were distributed among the farmers and they timely completed sowing of maize seeds.
Dr Hossain said maize is being used in preparation of various nutritional foods like corn-well, corn-flex, poultry, fish and animal feed and fodder and in several industrial products as well.
The demand for the crop is on the rise with the increase of the poultry and dairy farms as it contains huge Vitamin-A, he pointed out.
Dr Hossain said maize is highly beneficial to human health if consumed, the flour prepared through crushing 70 percent wheat and 30 percent maize together.
BWMRI has released five high yielding maize varieties and two of those-BARI Hybrid Bhutta-12 and 13- are both heat and drought tolerant. So, these are becoming popular in the growers’ level of the region.
It has also developed a new maize variety enriched with pro-vitamin ‘A’ recently and has been expanding it among the farmers level aimed at meeting up the society’s vitamin deficiency through boosting its yield.