RANGPUR, Nov 11, 2018 (BSS) – The Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE)
has fixed a target for farmers to produce 4.12-lakh tonnes of wheat from
1.25-lakh hectares in Rangpur division during this Rabi season.
The DAE officials said 78,478 tonnes of wheat will be produced from 23,760
hectares in five districts of Rangpur agriculture region and 3.34-lakh tonnes
of wheat from 1.01-lakh hectares of land in three districts of Dinajpur
agriculture region.
Meanwhile, the farmers of all eight districts in the division have started
preparing crop lands for sowing wheat seed after harvesting early varieties
of Transplanted Aman (T-Aman) rice varieties.
The government is distributing 670 tonnes of wheat seed, 670 tonnes of Di-
ammonium Phosphate (DAP) and 335 tonnes of Muriate of Potash (MoP)
fertilisers among 33,500 farmers under agriculture incentives programme to
promote wheat farming in the region.
“Under the programme, each of the beneficiary farmers is getting 20-kg
wheat seed, 20-kg DAP and 10-kg MoP fertilisers free of costs for cultivating
wheat on one bigha of land,” said horticulture specialist of DAE Khondker Md
Mesbahul Islam.
The farmers are showing more interest in cultivating wheat in both of the
two agriculture regions of Rangpur division this year after getting repeated
bumper productions with lucrative market price of the cereal crop in recent
years.
“The farmers have just started sowing wheat seed as the process will get
momentum with further progress in harvesting T-Aman rice crop allover Rangpur
division from this month-end,” Islam said.
The DAE, Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation (BADC), Bangladesh
Agriculture Research Institute (BARI) and other agriculture-related
organisations and institutions have taken steps to make wheat cultivation
programme a success.
“The government has taken adequate steps to ensure supply of quality wheat
seed, latest technologies, fertilisers and other inputs to the farmers to
promote cultivation of the profitable cereal crop that has a huge demand in
local markets,” Islam added.
Talking to BSS, deputy director of the DAE at its regional office Md
Moniruzzaman said the farmers are showing more interest in cultivating less
irrigation water consuming wheat using latest technologies to save
groundwater and earn more profits.
“Wheat farming has already become popular and more profitable among the
farmers who got its repeated bumper productions at less farming costs along
with rewarding market price in recent years,” Moniruzzaman added.
Rangpur Regional Additional Director of DAE Md Shah Alam said the farmers
are cultivating the high yielding wheat varieties after getting excellent
yield following less pests’ attacks in recent years.
“The yield rate of wheat is increasing every year as the farmers are mostly
cultivating the disease resistant- and stress tolerant-varieties of wheat
adopting conservation agriculture technologies and proper agronomic
managements,” Alam added.
Talking to BSS, farmers Mofizar Rahman of Taraganj upazila and Echhahaq Ali
of Sadar upazila in Rangpur said they already sowed wheat seed in their lands
after harvesting T-Aman rice recently as the process is getting momentum day
by day everywhere.