Bumper year for Boro in Ctg
Farmers carry harvested Boro paddy in the Gumaibil area under Rangunia upazila. The photo was taken on Sunday. Photo: Zobaer Hossain Sikder
With the harvested paddy giving higher yield than projected ones Chittagong region now expects a bumper production of Boro this year.
The farmers here have already harvested over 10 per cent of the paddy from over 2.30 lakh hectares of land with a target yield of over 8,86161 tonnes of rice in this region.
Of them, some 12 per cent was harvested in Chittagong, eight per cent in Cox's Bazar, 20 per cent in Noakhali, 14 per cent in Feni and eight per cent in Laxmipur as of last Sunday, said the sources at the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) here.
The DAE officials said, Boro harvest is expected to cross the projected production since the reaped paddy of both HYV (high yielding variety) and hybrid variety brought forth yield higher than what was set at the national level.
The harvested paddy of hybrid variety had a yield of six tonnes rice per hectare as against the projected national yield of 4.70 tonnes per hectare.
The harvested BRRI 28 paddy of high yielding variety, commonly known as Uchha Falanshil (Ufshi), also brought higher yield of four tonnes per hectare as against the targeted yield of 3.7 tonnes per hectare.
The production would cross the projected target further when the farmers will start harvesting BRRI 29 of higher yield, DAE officials said.
Sources said the farmers are now busy in harvesting as 24 percent of the cultivated Boro became matured in Chittagong district, 65 per cent in Noakhali, 20 per cent on Feni, 20 per cent in Laxmipur and 25 per cent in Cox's Bazar.
However, harvesting paddy of any of the local variety is yet to start, they said.
Good weather and supply of necessary fertilisers, insecticides and pesticides under the close monitoring of the district administration helped the region witness bumper production of Boro, said the DAE officials.
Mentionable, this year Boro was cultivated on over 2.30 lakh hectares of land in five districts including highest 73,065 hectares in Chittagong, 53,138 hectors in Noakhali, 35,820 hectares in Cox's Bazar, 30,853 hectares in Feni and 27,188 hectares in Laxmipur.
Of them, high yielding Ufshi was cultivated on 1,85,000 hectares, Hybrid on 43,080 hectares and local variety on 1983 hectares.
The farmers in different upazilas and unions in Chittagong district are harvesting Boro for the last two weeks.
While visiting Gumaibil under Rangunia upazila, one of the two largest Boro producing areas in Chittagong, on Sunday the farmers were seen all in smile with the bumper harvest.
Ali Akbar, who cultivated over 1 acre of land with a local variety of Boro, said sufficient supply of fertiliser at subsidised rate helped them making good production.
He said it would take two to three weeks to complete the Boro harvest of Gumaibil.
Workers were found busy in husking the paddy at the yard of Maokkarram of Najarertilla village under Rangunia who cultivated BRRI 28 and BRRI 29 on his 2 acre of land.
Deputy Commissioner (DC) Ashraf Shamim hoped that cent per cent harvest could be completed within May 20 if the present favourable weather existed.
“We recruited officials from different government departments like social welfare, food, agriculture to monitor supply of fertiliser at union level under the supervision of local UNOs,” the DC said.
The district administration is preparing for procurement of harvested paddy directly from the farmers.
“We have already instructed the concerned government officials and urging the concerned upazila chairmen for arranging transport facilities to bring the rice at government godowns immediate after collecting those from local markets,” DC Ashraf Shamim said.
“We are expecting a bumper production this year if rain or storm doesn't hamper the harvest or damage the standing crops,” said DAE Chittagong Additional Director Abul Kalam Azad.
“As such we have advised the farmers to go for harvest if 80 per cent of paddy in a single sheaf is matured,” he said.
Though a small quantity of Boro on some 115 hectares in Laxmipur district and some 10 hectares at Mirersarai upazila in Chittagong district were attacked by Bacterial Leaf Blight (BLB) disease it would not have any effect on the production, said Azad.
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