Luck smiles on boro farmers
Bumper harvest, better price likely this year
A farmer visits his profusely yielding boro field at Boalkali village in Narail Sadar upazila ahead of its harvest. Growers in several districts including Narail, Jessore and Jhenidah are eyeing handsome profit this season as favourable weather and smooth supply of fertilisers, insecticides and irrigation helped good production. Photo: STAR
Boro farmers in Jessore, Narail, Jhenidah and Kishoreganj districts are eyeing good profit this season as favourable weather conditions and proper use of fertilisers and insecticides have helped the paddy grow well. Moreover, the market price remains high ahead of its harvest. The target area of boro cultivation in Jessore and Narail districts this season has exceeded by 6,873 hectares of land, reports our Narail correspondent Ponuel S Bose. According to the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE), a scheme was taken to bring 1,90,587 hectares of land under boro cultivation this season in the two districts (Jessore-1,53,263 hectares, Narail-37,324 hectares) with an output target of 7,48,792 tonnes of rice (Jessore-5,93,410 tonnes, Narail-1,55,382 tonnes). However, the farmers have cultivated boro on 1,97,460 hectares of land -- 1,57,200 hectares in Jessore and 40,260 hectares in Narail district. The DAE is now expecting to achieve a target of 7,96,475 tonnes of boro paddy -- 6,30,000 tonnes in Jessore and 1,66,475 tonnes in Narail. Farmers are likely to get 60 to 65 maunds (one maund = 37.5 kg) of boro paddy per acre (100 decimals) of land and harvesting will start in the last week of April, DAE sources said. Authorities had taken steps to ensure smooth supply of fertiliser, insecticide, diesel and uninterrupted electricity to achieve the target, officials said. "We are interested in boro cultivation because it is easier and more profitable. Production cost of boro paddy per acre of land is Tk 9,000 to 12,000 while we get 60 to 65 maunds of paddy. The market price is good too," said farmer Somiron, 36, of Bhahirdanga village in Narail Sadar upazila. Dr Sunil Kumar Roy, regional project manager of Second Crop Diversification Project in Jessore region, said favourable weather conditions, adequate supply of necessary fertilisers and pesticides and sufficient motivation training are the reasons behind the expectation of bumper production of boro paddy in this season. Narail Sadar Upazila Agriculture Officer GM Ruhul Amin said they have continued providing necessary advice to the field level farmers. The target of borro cultivation in six upazilas of Jhenidah district has been achieved, reports our Jhenidah correspondent Azibor Rahman. Farmers cultivated boro on 89,990 hectares of land against the Department of Agriculture Extension's (DAE) target of 89,073 hectares in the district. The production target is 3,40,609 tonnes this year as 3.82 tonnes of rice is expected per hectare this season. In the last boro season, 3,48,919 tonnes of rice was produced from 88,595 hectares of land in six upazilas of the district. The production rate was 3.94 tonnes per hectare. DAE office sources said, the farmers of Jhenidah have cultivated varieties of paddy including high yielding varieties like BRRI-28, BRRI-29, BRRI-45, BRRI-33, BRRI-50, BRRI-26 and BRRI-39. Boro hybrid varieties include hira, super hybrid, modhumati, aftab, aloran, rupsha, tia, and sonarbangla. Boro Indian varieties include ratna, kajallata, nayanmoni, miniket, kargil, IR-50, GS and IT. While visiting some borro paddy fields on April 7, this correspondent talked to several farmers in Kaliganj. "I have cultivated boro paddy on 10 bighas of land this year. The total cost till harvest will stand at up to Tk 50 thousand. If the weather remains favourable I will get 230 maunds of paddy and it will bring me profit of Tk 2 lakh 70 thousand," Abdur Razzak of Eshwarba village said. Mahbubur Rahman, deputy director of DAE in Jhenidah, said, "There was hardly any pest attack as farmers got sufficient fertilisers and insecticides and rain in the middle of this season helped irrigation. And so, good boro yield is expected." In Kishoreganj, harvest of boro paddy is going on in full swing in low-lying haor areas, reports our correspondent Tafsilul Aziz. The farmers and agriculture officials are happy as fair weather may ensure a bumper crop this year in the entire area. Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) official Animesh Ray said they expect 694,330.2 tonnes of paddy from 174,655 hectares of land brought under boro cultivation this year as against the DAE office's target of 169,085 hactares. “We expect a bumper production of boro if everything goes well in the coming days till the harvesting is over," the agriculture official said. The farmers have already completed harvesting 40 percent of paddy, where at this time of last year they lost standing crops on around a thousand of hectares due to flash flood or hailstorm before the harvesting. This correspondent visited several areas in Itna, Mithamoin, Austagram, Nikli, Bazitpur, Karimganj and Tarail upazilas where the farmers were seen harvesting their golden crops.
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