RANGPUR, June 16, 2021 (BSS) – Farmers have produced a record quantity of over 10.92 lakh tonnes of maize exceeding the fixed production target by 3.90 percent during the just-ended Rabi season in Rangpur agriculture region.
Officials of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) here said farmers completed harvest of maize last week and produced over 10.92 lakh tonnes of the crop against the fixed production target of producing over 10.51 lakh tonnes.
“The achieved maize output is higher by 40,943 tonnes than the fixed production target,” Deputy Director of the DAE at its regional office Agriculturist Bidhu Bhusan Ray told BSS today.
Earlier, the DAE had fixed a target of producing over 10.51 tonnes of maize from 1,01,845 hectares of land for all five districts of Rangpur, Gaibandha, Kurigram, Nilphamari and Lalmonirhat in the region during the 2020-2021 Rabi season.
“However, enthusiastic farmers finally cultivated maize on 1,01,335 hectares of land, less by only 510 hectares against the fixed farming target,” he said.
Expressing satisfaction over super bumper production of maize during the last Rabi season, Agriculturist Ray said maize farming is continuously expanding during the last 12 years bringing self-reliance to many farmers.
“Like farmers in the mainland, char people are also enhancing maize cultivation on the sandy char lands and dried-up riverbeds after getting repeated bumper production with lucrative prices in recent years,” he said.
The government provided special incentives, high yielding varieties of maize seeds and fertilisers and latest technologies to small, marginal and flood-hit farmers to enhance cultivation of maize that helps to improve their livelihoods and cut poverty.
Getting various assistance and technical support from the government along with repeated bumper output and better profits, farmers are expanding maize cultivation every year both on the mainland and char areas, he added.
Senior Coordinator (Agriculture and Environment) of RDRS Bangladesh Agriculturist Mamunur Rashid lauded various government initiatives to boost production of the low-irrigation water consuming cereal crop of maize having huge demand in local markets.
Marginal farmers Mokarram Hossain, Moksed Ali, Azgar Ali, Aminul Islam and Ameer Hamza of char village Char Goytapara in Rajibpur upazila said they got government incentives and cultivated maize on their crop lands.
They expressed satisfaction over bumper maize production and better market price between Taka 800 and 850 per mound (every 40 kilogram) after harvesting their crop during the just-ended Rabi season.
Similarly, farmers Ariful Haque, Aiyub Ali, Nurul Haque, Aminul Islam and Hafizur Rahman of different villages in Rangpur said they also sold their harvested maize at rates between Taka 800 and 850 per mound recently.
Agriculturist Dr Md Abdul Mazid, who got the Independence Award 2018 Medal (food security), said there are immense potentialities to further increase maize production through bringing the huge abandoned char lands of the northern region.
“Maize farming is more profitable than many other crops and farmers are increasing its cultivation using the latest conservation agriculture technologies to get better output at reduced costs,” he said.