Vehicular movement disturbed as roads used for drying wheat
Vehicular movement disturbed as roads used for drying wheat
Wheat growers in the district are using rural roads for drying up stalks and threshing the crop, much to the problem in movement of vehicles including three-wheelers and motorbikes.
This year wheat farmers of the district got bumper yield due to favourable weather.
It is difficult to thresh wheat, if the plants are not dried in sunlight and farmers usually prefer pavements for the purpose, said several wheat growers of Belka village in Sundarganj upazila under Gaibandha district.
"But the act increases the risk of accidents as wheat stalks are slippery. I met mishaps twice last week while going to Belka Bazar on a motorbike," said Kabir Hossain, a resident of Sundarganj.
This year farmers of Phulchhari upazila cultivated high yielding variety (HYV) wheat of Shatabdi, Prodip and Bijoy species on 450 hectares of lands and achieved good yield, the expected production being over three tonnes per hectare, said Yusuf Rana Mondol, upazila agriculture officer.
"I have harvested 12 maunds of wheat from one bigha of land and present market rate is Tk 800 per maund," said Chandu Sheikh of Galna Char village in the upazila.
Wheat farming needs relatively less labour and a little cost for irrigation and so, it earns better profit than most other crops, said Nirmal Chandra of Gajaria village in Phulchhari.
According to Sundarganj upazila agriculture office, over 1,350 hectares of land including about 1,000 hectares in char areas of the Teesta River basin have been brought under wheat cultivation in the upazila this season.
This season 3,020 hectares of land in the district have been brought under HYV wheat cultivation and the expected harvest is 9,664 tonnes of wheat, said Mir Abdur Razzaque, deputy director of the Department of Agriculture Extension in Gaibandha.