RANGPUR, Sept 18, 2019 (BSS) – The farmers have finally brought over
6.06-lakh hectares of land under cultivation of Transplanted Aman (T-Aman)
rice in all five districts of Rangpur agriculture region this season.
The cultivated land area is less by 28,552 hectares of land or 5.49
percent than the fixed target of bringing 6.35-lakh hectares of land under T-
Aman rice cultivation to produce 18.08-lakh tonnes of clean rice (27.13-lakh
tonnes of paddy) in the region.
Officials of the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE), however, said
farmers have cultivated T-Aman rice on 6.06-lakh hectares of land this year
against 6.03-lakh hectares of land or higher by 2,902 hectares land than last
year.
Earlier, recent flood damaged T-Aman rice crop on 43.75 hectares of land
in July last causing production loss of 126.53 tonnes of clean rice worth
Taka 37-lakh and standing seedling on 5,216 hectares of land causing loss of
Taka 59.06 crore.
“The government took agri-rehabilitation programs spending Taka 1.42
crore to assist flood-affected farmers for making T-Aman rice farming program
successful,” Additional Deputy Director of the DAE at its regional office
Agriculturist Md. Moniruzzaman said.
Under the programs, the DAE distributed T-Aman rice seedling specially
prepared on community seedbeds among 12,241 flood-affected farmers of
Kurigram, Gaibandha and Lalmonirhat free of costs for re-transplantation on
their one bigha of land each in the region.
“We had prepared the seedling on 202 community seedbeds in these three
districts with one acre of land each spending Taka 80.90-lakh under the
government’s post-flood agri-rehabilitation programs,” Moniruzzaman said.
Of them, 100 community seedbeds were prepared on 100 acres of land each
in Kurigram and Gaibandha and two community seedbeds on two acres of land in
Lalmonirhat districts.
Talking to BSS, Additional Director of the DAE for Rangpur region
Agriculturist Mohammad Ali said 12,241 flood-affected farmers of local
communities got the specially prepared T-Aman rice seedling on community
seedbeds.
Under the programme, 6,060 flood-affected farmers of Kurigram and
Gaibandha each and 121 flood-affected farmers of Lalmonirhat received the
specially prepared T-Aman rice seedling on community seedbeds.
Some 1,251 more flood-affected farmers of these three districts got T-
Aman rice seedling prepared by other agriculture-related government
organisations on their own installations.
Besides, the DAE, BADC and Bangladesh Rice Research Institute prepared
seedbeds of late variety T-Aman rice on about 20 hectares of land spending
Taka 13.35 lakh in the region.
Later, these prepared T-Aman rice seedling were distributed among 1,181
flood-hit farmers of Kurigram, Gaibandha and Lalmonirhat districts for re-
transplantation on one bigha of land each.
“The DAE also distributed T-Aman rice seedling prepared on 280 floating
seedbeds in the region spending Taka 3.82 lakh among 70 flood-hit farmers for
re-transplantation on one bigha of land each,” Ali added.
Despite a little shortfall in achieving the fixed farming target of T-
Aman rice, farmers are expecting to get a bumper output of the crop as tender
rice plant are growing superbly now amid better climatic conditions and
frequent rainfalls in the region, he hoped.
Talking to BSS today, farmers Ariful Haque Batul, Abul Hossain and
Mominur Rahman of Sadar upazila here said tender plants of T-Aman rice are
growing excellent on their croplands predicting bumper production of the crop
this season.