RAJSHAHI, Aug 14, 2020 (BSS) – Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) has adopted special measures for boosting seedling production of transplanted Aman paddy through alternative ways aimed at recouping the losses caused by flood in Rajshahi region.
“We’ve developed community seedbeds and floating seedbeds besides growing seed on trays in the flood affected areas of Rajshahi, Naogaon and Natore districts,” said Sudhendra Nath Roy, additional director of the DAE.
Community seedbed of troubled time Aman paddy has already been made on 6.20 acres of land in Rajshahi and Naogaon districts through using four high yielding varieties with close supervision and monitoring by the DAE officials.
“We’ve used 150 kilograms (Kg) of Brri Dhan 34, 150-kg of BINA7, 600-kg of Chiniatab and 1,500-kg of BR22 for the community seedbed purposes,” said Sudhen Roy.
Target has also been set to create a total of 200 floating seedbeds of BR-23 variety with 144-kg of seeds in Rajshahi and Natore districts. Among the target, 144 seedbeds were already completed.
Apart from this, 380 seedbeds on trays with 22-kg seeds of Brridhan71 and 32-kg seeds of BINA7 varieties were erected in Rajshahi.
Agriculturist Sudhen Roy said the ongoing flood has affected seedbeds of transplanted Aman on 345 hectares of land besides 6,500 hectares of transplanted Aush, 1,855 hectares of newly transplanted Aman and 877 hectares of direct seeded Aman paddy in Rajshahi, Chapainawabganj, Naogaon and Natore districts.
Additional Secretary (Audit) to the Ministry of Agriculture Abdul Kader visited some of the affected areas and floating seedbeds at Bagmara Upazila in the district on Thursday. Local DAE officials and others concerned accompanied him.
Meanwhile, the DAE has set a target of producing around 22.19 lakh tonnes of transplanted Aman rice from 7.67 lakh hectares of land in all eight districts under Rajshahi division in the coming season.
The DAE has fixed the target of harvesting around 21 lakh tonnes of high yielding varieties of rice from around 7.09 lakh hectares of land, 71,401 tonnes of local varieties from 46,095 hectares and 48,203 tonnes of hybrid varieties from 11,712 hectares of land.
On the other hand, the local administration has recorded that around 8.93 lakh people of 2.14 lakh families and standing crops on around 34,140 hectares of land have been affected in Rajshahi division. Additional Divisional Commissioner Moinul Islam said the district and upazila administrations with the local public representatives have been distributing relief materials in the worst-affected areas for the last couple of weeks.
Around 2.14 lakh worst-affected people have, so far, received relief materials to overcome their livelihood related hardships caused by the flood in different districts in the division.
The government, as part of its instant humanitarian support to cope with the disastrous situation, has disbursed 1,464 tonnes of rice, Taka 30.72 lakh in cash, 15,174 packets of dry-food, Taka 12 lakh for baby food and Taka 18 lakh for animal feed among the waterlogged people in the division.
Moinul Islam said 1,854 tonnes of rice, Taka 41.48 lakh, 5,026 packets of dry food, Taka six lakh for baby food and Taka 12 lakh for animal feed remained in stock for distribution among the affected people.
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t from this, 1,000 tonnes of rice, Taka 20 lakh, Taka 15 lakh for baby food and Taka two lakh for dry food are available for the hardest hit families in Sirajganj district, if needed, he added.