90% Boro paddy in haor areas harvested amid Covid-19 pandemic: Agri Minister
Agriculture Minister Dr Abdur Razzaque today said nearly 90 percent Boro paddy in haor areas of the country have been harvested so far despite the Covid-19 pandemic across the country.
The farmers would be able to harvest the rest 10 percent paddy by this week, the minister also said, while talking to The Daily Star today.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. Besides, some 25 percent Boro paddy were harvested throughout the country, he said.
Harvesting of boro paddy this year faced several challenges due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic across the country, as workers to harvest paddy were not available.
The agriculture ministry in its hectic efforts mobilised around 75,000 workers in haor areas from different parts of the country.
Dr Razzaque, also a presidium member of the ruling Awami League, added that about 3,50,500 paddy-cutting labourers were engaged in cutting the paddy in the haor districts while ensuring they followed health guidelines.
Earlier on Tuesday, in a virtual meeting with journalists at his office in the Secretariat, the senior minister expressed hope that farmers can harvest cent percent paddy within June next.
He also added that the paddy harvesting is becoming late in haor areas as the BRRI-29 (165-day lifelong) type of paddy were cultivated there.
The minister at the briefing said that the farmers cultivated Boro rice on 47,54,447 hectare of land this year across the country and the paddy of some 11,88,611 hectare of land was harvested in the meantime, which is 25 percent of the total cultivatable land.
According to the DAE, the Boro crop was cultivated on 445,399 hectares of land this year in the haor region under Kishoreganj, Netrokona, Sunamganj, Moulvibazar, Habiganj, Sylhet and Brahmanbaria districts.
Giving a description of the Boro paddy harvested in the seven districts of the haor areas, he said the farmers harvested the paddy of 4,964 hectares out of 4,45,399 hectares of land in the haor region which is the total 90.02 percent of arable haor lands.
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