Good boro yield expected in 10 south-western districts
Farming starts in favourable weather, fertilisers at fair prices demanded
Farmers planting boro saplings at a field in Kushtia district.Photo: STAR
The officials of the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) in 10 south-western districts under Khulna division expect achievement of production target of 23,30,030 tonnes of boro paddy in the current season, which is 89,967 tonnes higher than last year's. The farmers are expected to cultivate boro on 5,84,497 hectares of land in Kushtia, Meherpur, Chuadanga, Jhenidah, Magura, Jessore, Narail, Bagerhat, Satkhira and Khulna districts while they cultivated 5,64,700 lakh hectares of land in the last season, said DAE officials in the division. The cultivation has already started. Hybrid boro will be cultivated on 1,65,000 hectares, high yielding varieties on 4,140,42 hectares and local varieties on 5,455 hectares of land. Of them, the highest cultivation target has been set for Jessore district where 1,52,294 hectares will be brought under boro cultivation and the lowest 25,362 hectares in Meherpur. Target areas of cultivation in other districts are 88,515 hectares in Jhenidah, 42,097 hectares in Magura, 37,324 hectares in Narail, 47,170 hectares in Khulna, 44,207 hectares in Bagerhat, 72,670 hectares in Satkhira, 32,275 hectares in Kushtia and 42,601 hectares in Chuadanga. “Farmers in the region have already started plantation without any trouble. Prices of fertilisers are also now within the capacity of the farmers,” Md Bazlul Haq, additional director of DAE, Khulna division, said during his visit to Daulatpur upazila in Kushtia last week. As this correspondent contacted DAE officials in other districts over phone, they shared similar views, saying that they got reports of good cultivation mainly because of favourable weather, proper irrigation facilities and supply of fertiliser. "We are expecting 10 to 15 percent extra yield this year if there is no natural calamity till now in the region,” said SM Shamsul Arefin, DD of DAE regional office in Kushtia. However, farmers in the region have told about some problems including scarcity of paddy saplings, high price for water supplied by pump owners and not getting urea and non-urea fertilisers at the government fixed prices. During this correspondent's visit to a few areas in the region including Meherpur, Chuadanga and Kushtia districts, farmers said they are facing trouble to collect saplings of paddy that are selling at high prices. Besides, power pump owners are realising high price for irrigation in different areas. Farmers said they are to pay one-fourth of reaped paddy for supplying water to one bigha of land from the time of starting cultivation process in the field. On an average, one-fourth of reaped paddy amounts to four maunds and its price is Tk 3000 to 3400. Farmers termed the price too high while several power pump owners told this correspondent that it is their tradition for years. They also showed plea of diesel price. Farmers said they are buying different urea and non-urea fertilisers for prices higher than the government fixed rates. According to DAE sources, the government fixed Tk 600 per bag (50 kg) of urea, TSP at Tk 1100, MoP at Tk 750 and DAP at Tk 1350. In some areas of Kushtia and Meherpur, farmers are to buy per bag of urea at Tk 680, TSP Tk 1200 to Tk 1250 and MoP at Tk 800 to Tk 820 and DAP at Tk 1400 to Tk 1500. In some areas, the local sub-dealers are also charging high prices of fertilisers, farmers said. “Stern action will be taken on specific allegation of price manipulation by the dealers,” Bazlul Haq, additional director of DAE, Khulna, said. He urged all to be aware about the matter.
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