Wheat blast fear cuts farming

Cultivation of wheat decreased this year due to fear of wheat blast, but farmers are expecting good production of the crop, thanks to favourable weather.

Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) in Pirojpur Md Abul Hossain Talukder said wheat was cultivated on 215 hectares of land this year, while it was 288 hectares last year. Average production from one hectare of land was 720 tonnes last year.

Nazirpur upazila has the highest production of wheat in the district.

Fazar Ali, a wheat cultivator of Baniary village in the upazila, said fewer farmers cultivated wheat this year compared to last year. “But those who cultivated wheat got good production,” he added.

Farmers said they did not get expected production last year because of unfavourable weather, but they are happy with the production this year.

“This year we did not face any trouble in growing wheat as the weather was very favourable,” said farmer Jalal Uddin Khan, adding that there were no attacks by insects.

Farmers said they spend around Tk 7,000 to grow wheat on one bigha of land, and get over 20 maunds of wheat.

“Those in our area who did not grow wheat this year cultivated other crops like sunflower and maize,” said Sipon Sheik, a farmer in the upazila.

DD Abul Hossain said Pirojpur is safe for cultivating wheat. “We are creating awareness among the farmers for cultivating wheat largely through display of hybrid wheat,” he said, adding that wheat cultivation area will hopefully increase next year.

He also said farmers get more wheat than paddy for the same  production cost.