Farmers and agriculturists are expecting to get over 2.93 lakh tonnes of mustard seed yield from 2.05 lakh hectares of land in all eight districts under Rajshahi division during the current season.
Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE)’s different initiatives and favorable climate conditions in the region during this Rabi season becomes boon for mustard plants to grow well, predicting bumper productions. At present, entire of the farming fields have turned into yellowish, creating an eye-catching look.
Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) has set target of producing 1.12 lakh tonnes of mustard from 80,586 hectares of land in four districts of Rajshahi Agricultural Zone while another 1.81 lakh tonnes from 1.25 lakh hectares of land in four districts of Bogura Agricultural Zone.
Deb Dulal Dhali, Additional Director of DAE, said 65,000 farmers were given seeds and fertilizers worth around Taka 5.20 crore free of cost for cultivating mustard in the division under the government’s agriculture incentive programme.
In addition to the DAE, various other research and development organizations like Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute (BARI) and many NGOs have taken adequate steps in collaboration with other departments this season to achieve the fixed production targets.
The agri-departments and NGOs have already provided quality seeds, necessary inputs and trainings on the latest technologies to the farmers. The landless and marginal farmers have also brought vast tracts of the sandy char lands under mustard cultivation this time in the Ganges basins and the crops are growing excellent everywhere in the region.
Sabbir Hossain, 35, of Bijoynagar village under Godagari Upazila, said he had cultivated mustard seed on two bigha of land last year and got yield of six mounds per bigha. He has brought three bighas of land under the cash crop farming this season and expecting good yield.
Bachhu Mian, 45, another farmer of Amnura village, has become successful through cultivating the cash crop for the last couple of years. This year, he cultivated the crop on four bighas of land. Meanwhile, DASCOH Foundation, an NGO, under its ‘Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) Project’ has been working for promoting various less-water consuming crops like mustard.
The IWRM project is being implemented at around 1,280 drought-prone villages in 39 Union Parishads and three municipalities of eight upazilas in Rajshahi, Naogaon and Chapainawabganj districts since 2014, said Jahangir Alam Khan, Assistant Coordinator of the project.
On Farm Research Division (OFRD) of BARI has been working for making the crop farming profitable through extension of its improved variety and improved management in the Barind area. BARI has released 16 high yielding mustard seed varieties and two of those- BARI Sharisha-15 and Tari-7 have become popular in the growers’ level of the region.
Dr Shakhawat Hossain, Senior Scientific Officer of OFRD (Barind Centre), said more than 100 farmers were given improved varieties of mustard seeds and fertilizer for farming on around 120 bighas of land in Rajshahi, Chapainawabganj and Naogaon districts during the current season.
He said mustard seed is a water-saving crop and its expansion in Barind area is very important towards lessening the gradually mounting pressure on its underground water.
(BSS)
