Drought hits <i>aus </i> farming

Drought has brought about a fall in acreage of aus rice crop, agriculture officials said.
Area under aus dropped from 11.38 lakh hectares to 10.50 lakh hectares this season, according to a preliminary estimate by the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE).
"It is due to drought. Rainfall was not uniform in all regions," said an official of the DAE, requesting not to be named.
Cultivation was mainly affected in the southwest region surrounding Jessore, but some districts in the north and northeast also suffered, DAE Director General Md Abdul Latif told The Daily Star.
DAE had earlier set a target to bring 11.50 lakh hectares under aus cultivation to yield 28.98 lakh tonnes of rice this season.
Aus production stood at 23.33 lakh tonnes in fiscal 2011-12, up from 21.33 lakh tonnes of the previous fiscal year, according to Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics.
The decline in aus acreage comes at a time when the government is looking to rejuvenate the cultivation of the rice crop, which was the second biggest contributor to the national rice basket in the eighties.
Aus rice now lags behind boro and aman crops in terms of contribution to annual rice output.
This season, the agriculture ministry has allocated Tk 35 crore for provision of fertilisers and an African drought-tolerant rice variety called Nerica, to small and marginal farmers to encourage cultivation of aus rice.
The DAE official said the data under aus coverage is yet to be finalised but time for transplanting aus varieties has gone by.
"But we are hopeful of exceeding the target for transplanted aman rice. The current monsoon is also likely to support better yields of aus," he said.
DAE aims to bring 52.19 lakh hectares under transplanted aman. So far, 18 percent of the target has been achieved, according to the DAE official.
Over the past several years, rice production has increased, enabling the country to cut dependence on imports.
Annual rice output rose to 3.73 crore tonnes in fiscal 2011-12 from 3.35 crore tonnes a year ago, according to BBS.