RANGPUR, May 26, 2021 (BSS) – Farmers have produced an all-time record 5,839 tonnes of six varieties of pulses in all five districts of Rangpur agriculture region during the just-ended Rabi season.
Officials of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) said farmers achieved the bumper output of pulses after exceeding the fixed farming target by 125 percent despite crop diversification and cultivation of maize, chili and vegetables on more land.
“The DAE had fixed a target of producing 2,521 tonnes of pulses from 1,938 hectares of land in the region this time,” said Additional Director of the DAE for Rangpur region Agriculturist Bibhubhushan Roy.
Farmers finally brought 4,357 hectares of land under pulse cultivation, higher by 2,419 hectares or about 125 percent against the fixed farming target.
The fixed target included production of 1,331 tonnes of lentil from 1,040 hectares of land, 775 tonnes of ‘Khesari’ from 555 hectares, 97 tonnes of ‘Arhar’ from 77 hectares, 47 tonnes of gram from 40 hectares, 241 tonnes mungbean from 205 hectares and 31 tonnes of cowpea from 21 hectares of land.
However, farmers had finally cultivated lentil on 1,967 hectares of land, ‘Khesari’ on 2,068 hectares, ‘Arhar’ on 65 hectares, gram on 44 hectares, mungbean on 197 hectares and cowpea on 16 hectares of land in the region,” he said.
“After completing harvest, farmers produced a record quantity of 5,839 tonnes of pulses this time against the production of 3,524 tonnes of these varieties of pulses from 1,768 hectares of land during the previous 2019-2020 Rabi season,” Roy said.
The produced pulses include 2,668 tonnes of lentil, 2,722 tonnes of ‘Khesari’, 83 tonnes of ‘Arhar’, 82 tonnes of gram, 259 tonnes mungbean and 25 tonnes of cowpea this season.
Agriculturist Roy said the DAE and other related organisations provided training, quality seeds, latest technologies and inputs to farmers to make the pulse farming programme a success in the region.
“Besides, the government through different commercial banks disbursed easy-term agri-loans to farmers to encourage them in bringing more land under cultivation of pulses to enhance production this season,” Roy added.
Senior Coordinator (Agriculture and Environment) of RDRS Bangladesh Agriculturist Mamunur Rashid told BSS that there is a brighter potential to further increase pulse production in the northern region despite crop diversification.
“Special emphasis should be put on exploring the prevailing prospect to enhance pulse output through increasing its cultivation by adopting latest agriculture technologies and using high yielding varieties of seeds,” he said.
He especially stressed on adoption of the mixed, relay and intercropping crop cultivation methods to increase farming and production of pulses on the main land as well as riverine char areas in all seasons to make the nation self-reliant on pulses.
Talking to BSS, farmers Mozaffar Hossain, Abdul Jalil and Moksedur Rahman of different villages in Rangpur said they are happy after getting a bumper production of different varieties of pulses and lucrative prices in local markets.