RAJSHAHI, Jan 19, 2019 (BSS)- Farmers along with field level agricultural
extension officials, scientists and researchers are now expecting bumper
production of chickpea commonly known as ‘chhola’ or ‘boot’ in the region
including its vast Barind tract.
According to the sources concerned, the prediction has become surfaced
amidst suitable climate and topographical condition for the cash crop
farming.
Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) has set a target of producing
1869 tonnes of chickpea from 1,563 hectares of land in eight districts under
Rajshahi division this year.
Farmers are happy with the satisfactory yield of chickpea in the region
for the last couple of years.
Abdus Samad, a farmer of Luxmipur village under Godagari Upazila in the
district, cultivated chickpea on one bigha of land and got yield worth Taka
7,000 by spending only Taka 2,500 last year. He also brought two bighas of
land under the crop farming this year.
Samad says chickpea farming is very much cost-effective as it is one of the
less-water consuming crops. Like him, many other farmers also harvested
better yields in recent years generating a prediction of expanding the cash
crop farming.
Various research and government and non-government entities including Pulse
Research Centre (PRC) and On Farm Research Division (OFRD) of Bangladesh
Agriculture Research Institute are working here to promote chickpea farming
in the region.
Dr Shakhawat Hossain, Senior Scientific Officer of OFRD (Barind Centre),
said there are prospects of producing additional 10,000 tonnes of the pulse
including chickpea in the high Barind tract comprising Rajshahi, Naogaon and
Chapainawabganj districts.
“We are conducting effective programmes to motivate the farmers to
cultivate chickpea on the targeted lands to meet the gradually increasing
demands for pulse,” he said referring to various salient features of the cash
crop.
He said: “No additional cost for fertilizer, pesticide and irrigation is
needed to cultivate this sort-term cash crop”.
Dr Hossain viewed around 20,000 bighas of land remains fallow for more than
three months after harvesting of transplanted Aman paddy every year.
“We are putting in our level best efforts to bring the huge lands under the
farming of lentil, chickpea and grasspea,” he added.
To make the farming popular and profitable at the grassroots level, the
OFRD and PRC has started conducting various programmes including farmers’
motivation and training, field demonstration and supplying necessary inputs
like seed, fertilizer and pesticide.
He also says a new variety of chickpea, which is heat-tolerant, resistant
to various diseases and also high-yielding, has been released as BARI Chola-
10 in the region recently. This variety is expected to provide some relief to
farmers in the drought-prone area, which is vulnerable to the adverse impacts
of climate change.
Under a project titled, ‘Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM)’,
around 994 volunteers are working in the Barind region to motivate farmers to
promote water-saving crops like wheat, maize, pulses, spices and vegetables
farming.
Jahangir Alam, Assistant Coordinator of IWRM Project, said large-scale
promotion of less-water consuming indigenous crops could be the effective
means of mitigating water-stress condition in the drought-prone Barind area.