BSS-02 Rajshahi farmers to produce 4.58 lakh tonnes of maize

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ZCZC

BSS-02

MAIZE-FARMING-RAJSHAHI (with picture)

Rajshahi farmers to produce 4.58 lakh tonnes of maize

RAJSHAHI, Jan 6, 2019 (BSS)- Cultivation of maize both in rabi and
kharip seasons in Rajshahi region, especially Barind tract and Chalan Beel
areas, has gradually been increasing as the farmers are showing more
interests.

The farmers got fair prices of maize during the last couple of years
inspiring them to cultivate more maize. There are brighter prospects for
increasing maize production and the government has put due emphasis on the
issue.

The region is viable for huge maize cultivation which can play a vital
role in transforming traditional agriculture into commercial one because of
its multiple use and economic benefit.

Nomanul Islam, a farmer of Gogram village in Godagari Upazila, has
cultivated maize on one and half bighas of land during the current season. He
along with many other fellow farmers expects better yield as suitable weather
prevails here now.

“I got 16 to 18 mounds yield from per bigha of land and sold at Taka 550
to 600 per mound in last harvesting season,” said Islam.

The Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) has set a target of
producing 4.58 lakh metric tonnes of maize from 41,135 hectares of land in
eight districts under Rajshahi division during this Rabi season.

Dr Ilias Hossain, Principal Scientific Officer of Bangladesh Wheat and
Maize Research Institute, said maize contains huge Vitamin-A and its multi-
dimensional use including production of corn oil with no cholesterol from
maize can helps heart patients in many ways through consuming its oil.

He said the farmers both the small and marginal ones cultivate the cash
crop in more lands including the vast Barind tract and char areas in the
region. Availability of quality seeds, including hybrid varieties, huge
demand of the commodity in the country and maximum profits have encouraged
them towards the farming remarkably.

To mitigate the water-stress condition in Barind Tract, step has been
adopted to make the farmers habituated in farming maize through Conservation
Agriculture (CA)-based and raised-bed methods since 2010.

SM Mustafizur Rahman, additional director of Department of Agriculture
Extension, said there was no scarcity of seeds this time as huge quantities
of the same were distributed among the farmers and they timely completed
sowing maize seeds in more lands under the crop farming program.

He hoped that the enhanced farming could supplement the efforts to
ensure food security adding that the field level DAE officials and staffs are
working relentlessly to overcome the existing obstacles being faced by the
farmers relating to the maize farming.

Agriculturist Rahman said various steps have been adopted to increase
the acreage of maize along with boosting its yield as the crop
diversification has been given top priority in the existing water-stress
condition.

He attributed that the maize is now being used in preparation of various
nutritional foods like corn-well, corn-flex, poultry and animal feed and
fodder and in several industrial products as well.

The demand for the crop is on the rise with the increase of the poultry
and dairy farms, he pointed out.

BSS/spl/AH/SA/ 1115 HRS