Harvest of short duration Aman rice continues creating employments for farm-labourers during lean period of ‘Aswin’ and ‘Kartik’ months in Rangpur region. Officials of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) said expanded cultivation of short duration Aman rice was launched since 2009 aiming to creating employment for poor farm-labourers through early harvest of the crop during lean period.
“Early harvest of short duration Aman rice creates jobs helping farm- labourers to overcome seasonal lean period now for the eleventh consecutive years,” said Deputy Director of the DAE at its regional office Agriculturist Md. Moniruzzaman.
The farmers completed harvest of short duration Aman rice on 6,395 hectares of land producing 22,240 tonnes of Aman rice (33,360 tonnes of paddy) in all five districts of Rangpur agriculture region till Sunday. “The farmers are now getting 3.48 tonnes yield rate of clean Aman rice per hectare (5.22 tonnes of paddy per hectare) on an average,” Moniruzzaman added.
Beginning from this month, harvesting of short duration Aman rice will continue till end of November next when farmers will begin harvesting of the Aman rice crop in full swing ending joblessness situation. Moniruzzaman said farmers have cultivated T-Aman rice on over 6.08-lakh hectares of land, less by 26,552 hectares against the fixed farming target on over 6.35-lakh hectares of land, in the region this season.
Earlier, the DAE had fixed a target of bringing over 6.35-lakh hectares of land under T-Aman rice cultivation to produce over 18.08-lakh tonnes of clean rice (27.13-lakh tonnes of paddy) for the region this time.
“Despite a little shortfall in the fixed farming target, farmers have cultivated T-Aman rice on over 6.06-lakh hectares of land this year against 6.03-lakh hectares of land or higher by 2,902 hectares of land than last year in the region,” Moniruzzaman added. The farmers have cultivated early and short duration Aman rice varieties on over 60,000 61,012 hectares of land this season in the region.
“The farmers are now harvesting short duration Aman rice varieties such as BRRI dhan33, BINA dhan7, BRRI dhan39, BRRI dhan56, BRRI dhan57, BRRI dhan62, ‘Tiya’, ACI-1, 2, 3 and 6, ‘Aloron’, ‘Dhanigold’, ‘Hira-2’, ‘Moyna’, SL8S, ‘Jagoron’, ‘Ispahani’, ‘Nobin’ and China,” Moniruzzaman said.
Talking to BSS, farmers Lebu Mian, Ansarul Haque, Abdul Karim and Jahangir Alam of different villages in Rangpur said they got 4.5 to 5.30 tonnes of paddy yield per hectare of BINA dhan7, BRRI dhan33 and BRRI dhan56 after harvesting in recent weeks.
Agriculturist Dr. Md. Abdul Mazid, who got the Independence Award 2018 Medal (food security), last year, said early harvest of short duration Aman rice followed by cultivation of subsequent winter crops on same land creates huge employment during the lean period.
He said the government adopted the three-year (2008-2010) Greater Rangpur Monga Mitigation Programme in 2008 targeting to expand cultivation of short duration Aman rice for early harvest to create jobs for farm-labourers during the seasonal lean period.
“After assuming power in 2009, the Awami League government led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina put maximum stress on expanding cultivation of short duration Aman rice and soon achieved the set target by 2010,” Mazid added.
Additional Director of the DAE for Rangpur region Agriculturist Muhammad Ali said farmers are cultivating early potato, winter vegetables and crops on the same land after harvesting short duration Aman rice, which eventually is contributing to boost crop production in the country.
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(BSS)
