Rajshahi farmers to produce 4.39 lakh tonnes of wheat

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RAJSHAHI, Dec 21, 2018 (BSS)-Farmers and all other field level agricultural
officials, scientists and researchers concerned have taken all sorts of need-
based steps for making the current-season’s wheat farming a total success
everywhere in the region.

Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) has set a target of producing
around 4.39 lakh metric tonnes of wheat from around 1.34 lakh hectares of
land in all eight districts under Rajshahi division.

“We have adequate preparations and all the field level officials and staff
concerned are working relentlessly to attain the target,” said SM Mustafizur
Rahman, additional director of DAE, while talking to BSS here Thursday
afternoon.

He mentioned that the farmers were seen bringing more lands under wheat
farming than that of target fixed by DAE for the last couple of years.

Meanwhile, farmers and others concerned are very much optimistic about the
overall wheat production during the current season in the region particularly
the vast Barind tract.

Golam Mostofa, 48, a farmer of Panchandar village under Tanore Upazila, is
now happy over witnessing the wheat growing field. He attributed that timely
sowing of seeds accompanied by the current cold spell, is being considered as
a positive sign for attaining a bumper production of the cash crop.

Dr Ilias Hossain, principal scientific officer of Regional Wheat and Maize
Research Center, said farmers of the Barind area were found more confident in
wheat farming on more new lands, due to the water-stress condition, as wheat
is a less-water consuming plant.

Wheat Research Center has so far released 24 wheat varieties and some other
time-fitting technologies for commercial cultivation.

The recently released six varieties including prodip, bijoy, shatabdi and
BARIGAM-26 are more tolerant to leaf blight and leaf rush-disease with
additional advantage of higher yield, Dr Ilias added.

Nurul Amin, retired additional director of DAE, said wide-range promotion
of the newly innovated variety could help increase wheat yield.

Wheat plays an important role in ensuring food security as its consumption
is increasing day by day. But, Bangladesh produces hardly 10 lakh metric
tonnes of wheat against the demand of around 40 lakh tonnes annually, he
stated.

Agriculturist Amin, however, said that Rajshahi division contributes 35
percent of the total area and 44 percent of the total production. Not only
that, there are around 50,000 hectares of more rain fed land in the high
Barind area and there has been a bright prospect of bringing the huge land
under wheat cultivation.

ATM Rafiqul Islam, project director (agriculture) of Barind Multipurpose
Development Authority, said a substantial and sustainable expansion of wheat
farming can mitigate the existing water-stress condition in the high Barind
tract as wheat is an environment-friendly crop.

Large scale wheat production is very important for ensuring food security
as it is the second most important cereal in the country after rice and plays
a vital role in the national food security, he added.

Agriculturist Rafique viewed time has come to enhance acreage of wheat
farming instead of only depending on Irri-Boro rice in the dried area to
ensure food security amid the adverse impact of climate change.

Apart from this, he said that seven to eight bighas of wheat could be
cultivated with the irrigated water of only one bigha of Boro rice through
soil moisture utilization and best use of modern technologies.

More support from international research organizations including CIMMYT
has become necessary for germ-plasm especially heat-tolerant variety adoption
together with yield gap minimization in the farmers field.