Tender wheat plants growing excellent in Rangpur region

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RANGPUR, Jan 13, 2020 (BSS) – The tender wheat plants are growing
excellent amid favourable weather predicting better production despite a
little shortfall in the fixed farming target in Rangpur agriculture region
this season.

Officials of Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) said farmers
have finally cultivated wheat on 18,810 hectares of land, 3,324 hectares or
13.07 percent less than the fixed target on 22,050 hectares of land in the
region.

The DAE has fixed a target of producing 71,736 tonnes of wheat in all
five districts Rangpur, Gaibandha, Kurigram, Lalmonirhat and Nilphamari
during this current Rabi season.

Deputy Director of DAE at its regional office Agriculturist Md.
Moniruzzaman said the fixed wheat farming target could not be achieved
following crop diversification and farming of maize on more lands in the
region like in the previous couple of years

The farmers have cultivated wheat on 18,726 hectares of land, including
2,085 hectares in Rangpur, 3,150 hectares in Gaibandha, 6,806 hectares in
Kurigram, 1,480 hectares in Lalmonirhat and 5,205 hectares of land in
Nilphamari districts in the region.

“We are expecting a better wheat production as farmers have sowed high
quality, disease resistant and stress tolerant variety wheat seeds on their
crop lands using conservation agriculture (CA)-based technologies,” he said.

The farmers have mostly cultivated high yielding wheat varieties like
‘Bijoy’, ‘Pradip’, ‘Sotabdhi’, BARI Gom25, BARI Gom26, BARI Gom27, BARI Gom28
and BARI Gom29 and the harvesting process will begin from April next.

Talking to BSS, farmers Echhahaq Alim Aiyub Ali, Lokman Hossain and
Monser Ali of different villages here said they are expecting excellent wheat
production as the tender plants growing superbly amid favourable climatic
conditions this season.

Talking to BSS, Senior Coordinator (Agriculture and Environment) of RDRS
Bangladesh Agriculturist Mamunur Rashid said farmers are mostly cultivating
stress tolerant varieties of wheat adopting CA-based technologies to get
better yield at reduced costs.

Additional Director of the DAE for Rangpur region Agriculturist Muhammad
Ali also predicted a better wheat yield adding that necessary assistance were
provided to farmers to expand cultivation of less irrigation water consuming
cereal crops like wheat.