By Dr Aynal Haque

   RAJSHAHI, Nov 22, 2021 (BSS) - Around 1.67 lakh small and marginal farmers
are getting fertilizers and seeds worth about Taka 18.70 crore free of cost
during the current rabi season under government agriculture incentive
programme in Rajshahi division.

  Additional Director of Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) Sirajul
Islam here told BSS that incentives are being given to the farmers in all
eight districts in the division.

  "We are very much hopeful about completing distribution of the rabi crop
seed and fertilizers within this month," he said, adding that the incentives
will help the farmers grow the seasonal crops successfully.

  Agriculturist Islam said each of the beneficiary farmers are getting agri
inputs for cultivating crops like wheat, maize, mustard, sunflower,
groundnut, winter onion, mug-bean, lentil and grass pea on one bigha of land.

  In the division, a total of 67,000 farmers are getting incentives for wheat
farming, 59,500 for maize, 98,000 for mustard, 9,000 for onion, 4,000 for
mung-bean, 9,000 for lentil, 7,500 for sunflower, 13,500 for grass pea and
4,000 for groundnut.

  To mitigate pressure on water, the marginal farmers are being given seeds
of various less-water consuming crops like wheat, maize, lentil, grass pea
and mustard seed, Islam said.

   The incentive programme will contribute a lot to promoting the water-
saving crops in the drought-prone Barind area, he said.

   More than 1,500 volunteers are motivating farmers to cultivate less water
consuming crops through water resource management on behalf of the
'Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM)' Project.

  DASCOH Foundation has been implementing the IWRM project in 1,280 drought-
hit villages of 39 Union Parishad and three municipalities in eight upazilas
of Rajshahi, Naogaon and Chapainawabganj districts supported by Switzerland
since 2015, said Jahangir Khan, Project Coordinator of IWRM.

  Rafiqul Islam, a marginalized farmer of Fulbari village under Godagari
Upazila, said he is very happy after getting the incentives in proper time.
"I have sown wheat seed on one bigha of land timely after getting the seed
and fertilizer incentives," Islam said, adding that the time prior to 30th
November is considered as appropriate period for sowing wheat seed.

   Shakhawat Hossain, another farmer of Bijoynagar area under the same
upazila, said he has sown onion seed after availing the incentives which has
saved him from leaving behind his land abandoned.

   Pearul Islam of Bhagail village said many of the farmers have been
benefited from the incentives this season as those were distributed in proper
time.

  All sorts of necessary measures have been adopted to make the farming
during the current rabi season successful, said Atanu Sarker, Sub Assistant
Agriculture Officer.

  DAE has set a target of producing 4.03 lakh tonnes of wheat from 1.33 lakh
hectares of land, 5.67 lakh tonnes of maize from 55,200 hectares of land,
2.83 lakh tonnes of mustard seed from 1.99 lakh hectares of land and 13.09
lakh tonnes of onion from 90,430 hectares of land.

   Target has also been set to produce 20.25 lakh tonnes of vegetables from
90,220 hectares of land, 73,582 tonnes of lentil from 51,088 hectares of land
and 39,103 tonnes of grass pea from 30,185 hectares of land.