Bumper Aus yield expected in Moulvibazar
Farmers are expecting a bumper harvest of Aus paddy this season, for the first time in Moulvibazar in ten years.
The overall production of the crop in Sylhet division is also good.
According to Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) in Moulvibazar, Aus has been cultivated on 56,852 hectares of land in the district this year against the target of 56,797 hectares.
The cultivation areas in 2019 and 2018 were 53,010 hectares and 49,440 hectares. This year cultivation area of Aus in the district has been more than Boro paddy, which was grown on 53,550 hectares.
Mahbubur Rahman, a farmer from Majidpur area of Rajnagar upazila in Moulvibazar, said he has cultivated Aus on five bigha of land and got 60 maunds (a maund = 40 kg) of yield.
Aus paddy has grown well this time due to favourable weather, proper use of fertilizers, pesticides and irrigation, said Mamun Mia, a farmer from Majidpur village. He expects to get 80 maunds of paddy from five bigha.
Sajed Mia of the area said he cultivated Aus paddy on 10 acres of land and got good yield.
Due to the coronavirus situation, there is a serious crisis of labourers to harvest paddy. However, the authorities are providing the service of combine harvesters at a subsidized rate to reap paddy, much to the relief of the farmers.
Kazi Lutful Bari, DAE deputy director in Moulvibazar, said 80 percent of the paddy in the district has already been harvested, which amounts to one lakh 45 thousand 60 tonnes.
"The total production will hopefully exceed the target of 1.60 lakh tonnes. This is the first time in ten years that the district saw a bumper yield of Aus, which will be on par with Aman production," he added.
Mazumder Md Ilias, deputy director at the Sylhet divisional office of DAE, said, 2.08 lakh hectares of land was brought under Aus cultivation in the division this year and last year it was 192,600 hectares.
This year, incentive amounting Tk 42.5 million was given to 50,000 marginal farmers for the crop in the division, he said.
Sreenibash Debnath, additional director at the office, said, "We have provided all the necessary cooperation and advice to the farmers since the beginning of Aus season. The crop sees a bumper yield due to favourable weather conditions in the division this year."
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