GAIBANDHA, Oct 22, 2020 (BSS)- An initiative has been taken to produce Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute (BARI) released Orange Fleshed Sweet Potato (OFSP) at farmers’ level of the three northern district including Gaibandha this year.
International Potato Center(CIP) would implement it under the programme of Development and Delivery of Bio fortified (DDBIO) Crops at Scale in partnership with Gana Unnayan Kendra (GUK), a reputed none government organization of northern region with the financial support of UKAID, office sources said.
Under the programme, a total of 6000 farmers’ has been selected and they would farm the variety on their 909 bighas of land this year.
The objective of the BARI SP-4, BARI SP-8 and BARI SP-12 farming is to help the growers earn economical profit from the farming side by side with meeting the growing demand of Vitamin A which is very essential for the children and pregnant mothers.
To empower the women farmers of the upazilas with farming this variety successfully is another objective of the programme so that they could be self-dependent economically.
The OFSP would be farmed on the land of the farmers of Sadar and Fulchhari upazilas under Gaibandha district, Pirgachha and Kaunia upazilas of Rangpur district and Sadar and Rajarhat Upazilas of Kurigram district, said Agricultural Research and Development Specialist of CIP Monower Hossain.
To bring the land under farming, 150 entrepreneurs have already set up nurseries where the vines of OFSP had grown well and the entrepreneurs are taking care like their own children to get required number of vines he also said.
Within few days of this month, 60 lakh pieces of vines of OFSP would be collected from the entrepreneurs in cash and it would be distributed to the selected farmers of the upazilas to plant those on the sandy loam land to get desired output against the crop, he added.
Technological and other supports were also being provided from the programme to produce the OFSP on the land of the farmers properly, he further added.
The selected farmers were also being trained up so that they could produce OFSP, Deputy Director of the DAE agriculturist Masudur Rahman said the Sub-Assistant Agriculture Officers has been instructed to help the farmers produce OFSP successfully.
Talking to this correspondent, Chief Executive of GUK Abdus Salam said, the selected farmers of the project command areas would go for harvesting in next March.