Aus farming raises hope among Tangail farmers
Aus paddy is once again being cultivated in the district as farmers are getting good profit in a short time from it.
Earlier, Aus had lost its appeal to Boro, which provided higher yield.
This year, the government provided Tk 31 crore in an incentive package to encourage farmers to grow paddy during the Aus season that began in March.
Under the package, the local agriculture department selected 350 farmers of Sadar upazila to cultivate BRRI-48 variety of paddy on 150 hectares of land this season, and provided seeds and fertilisers for free, said acting Deputy Director (DD) of the district Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) Abu Adnan.
Following the direction of the local agriculture officials, farmers cultivated Aus paddy on fallow land just after harvesting the Boro paddy (before planting of T-Aman paddy) in the middle of March, and started harvesting from the middle of July, he said, adding that they got good yield.
Some farmers, however, cultivated it in middle of June on the lands where Boro harvesting was late, Adnan said, adding that harvesting on those lands ended about two weeks ago.
Around 100 farmers of different villages in Dynna union, with one bigha of land each, were provided help for cultivating the paddy, said Osman Gani, upazila sub-assistant agriculture officer.
The farmers got 12 maunds to 15 maunds of paddy from each bigha of land, he added.
After harvesting of Aus, most of the farmers have already cultivated T-Aman paddy, he added.
Expressing satisfaction, farmer Satya Rajbonshi, 70, of Dorjipara village in the union cultivated Aus paddy on his 40 decimals of land and got 17 maunds from it.
"I had got 5 kg of HYV seeds of BRRI-48, 20 kg of urea, and 10 kg of Diammonium Phosphate and Muriate of Potash for the cultivation of rice on one bigha of land. I had also got Tk 400 for weeding and other work," he said.
"I am very happy as I got Tk 18,700 by selling the paddy at Tk 1,100 per maund. Besides, I got Tk 3,000 extra by selling the straw," he added.
Bellal Hossain of Rampal village, Mohammad Fatik of Khanpur, Akbar Hossain of Bausa and Hazrat Ali of Goalpara village in the union also expressed their satisfaction over the yield and profit from Aus cultivation.
Sadar upazila Agriculture Officer Faruk Ahmed said local farmers used to cultivate two paddies -- Boro and Aman -- in a year. Now they are cultivating Aus paddy as extra crop on the fallow lands after Boro harvesting and before T-Aman plantation.
"Cultivation of the short duration Aus paddy needs less irrigation and fertiliser, while the yield is comparatively better than other varieties," he said.
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