RANGPUR, April 08, 2017 (BSS) – The Department of Agriculture Extension
(DAE) has fixed a target of producing over 6.91 lakh bales of jute from
63,600 hectares of land for all five districts under Rangpur agriculture
region this season.
“The farmers started sowing of jute seeds last month and the process has
got momentum from this week in Rangpur, Gaibandha, Kurigram, Lalmonirhat and
Nilphamari district in the region,” said horticulture specialist of DAE
Khondker Md Mesbahul Islam.
He said the farmers started showing more interests in jute cultivation
since last year when the government declared jute as the national
agricultural product and made use of jute sacs mandatory in various sectors.
“The farmers might exceed the fixed jute farming target in the region this
time following its bumper production and lucrative price last year, increase
in local demand and huge exports of jute products abroad,” he added.
According to the DAE sources here, the farmers will produce over 6.46 lakh
bales of ‘Tosha’ variety jute fibre from 558,775 lakh hectares of land and
44,680 bales of ‘Deshi’ variety fibre from 4,825 hectares of land in Rangpur
region this season.
The farmers have already sowed jute seeds on 15,016 hectares of land,
23.61 per cent of the fixed farming target, and the tender plants are growing
excellent amid a favorable climatic condition.
The farmers are getting high quality jute seed easily from Bangladesh
Agriculture Development Corporation, other recommended government and non-
government organisations and dealers.
Jute growers Abdul Kudus, Musfikur Rahman, Sunil Kumar and Mamunur Rahman
of different villages here thanked the present government led by Prime
Minister Sheikh Hasina for ensuring supply of quality jute seeds at their
doorsteps.
They also expressed gratitude for providing cost-free jute seed among the
trained farmers and supplying ribbon-retting machines to ease jute-rotting
process amid drought situation and upgrade fibre quality using ribbon-retting
methods this season.
Talking to BSS, former Adviser- Agriculture of BRAC International for
South Asia and Africa Dr MA Mazid said the farmers would get better jute
production if they could complete sowing seed by this month end.
“The farmers can use the ‘Six Line Pick up Jute Seeding Method’ to
cultivate jute using only 2 kg seed per acre to save huge quantity of seed
when they generally use 2.5 to 3.5 kg jute seed per acre using traditional
sowing methods,” he added.
Predicting a bumper jute production this time, Regional Additional
Director of the DAE Shah Alam said the farmers were getting assistance from
field level officials concerned to make the jute cultivation programme
successful in the region.
BSS/MI/AKM 1035 hrs