In Shariatpur district, Aus paddy has been planted on more croplands than the targeted amount of land in the current season. Compared to last year, 600 hectares of more land have been cultivated with Aus paddy this year in the district.
According to Shariatpur office of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), Aus paddy farming is increasing day by day due to comparative yield and good price in Shariatpur.
The bumper yield of Aus has brought smiles to the faces of local farmers. As the weather and land were suitable for Aus farming in the current season, farmers have received a good yield. Aus paddy harvesting and threshing festival has already started in all the crop fields of the district. The farmers of this region are happy to get good yield as well as good price of Aus paddy. They said that they will cultivate Aus on more lands in future.
As they received a good yield as well as expected good price for Aus, the farmers have planted more land with Aus crossing this year’s target.
According to local DAE office, the target of Aus farming this year was set at 12,505 hectares of land. However, due to favorable weather, Aus paddy has been cultivated on a total area of 13,075 hectares in the district this season. Local DAE office has set a target of producing more than 27,588 thousand metric tonnes of rice fromthat amount of land.
Out of all 5 upazilas of the district, aus paddy has been cultivated the most in Vedarganj upazila. About 5,375 hectares of land in that upazila has been cultivated with Aus paddy this season. However, at present Aus paddy is being harvested in full swing in all the upazilas of the district.
Farmer Sekandar Sardar of Bilashpur Union in Shariatpur’s Jajira Upazila said, “I got the chance to farm an exhibition plot of BINA Dhan-19 from the DAE office. This variety of paddy is totally new to this area so, I saved up some seeds. Now many people are buying seeds from me. I received a yield of 22 mounds of Aus paddy from one Bigha of land farming this variety. We are happy to have this new variety.”
Jajira Upazila Agriculture Officer Agriculturist Md Jamal Hossain said, “The far-reaching concept of the present government is to increase rain-fed Aus farming so as to reduce ground water based harvest and reduce production cost to make paddy profitable. We are trying to move forward with that plan with field level agriculture officers. For this we have brought modern varieties of highbred variants like BRRI Dhan-82, BRRI Dhan-85 and BINA Dhan-19 having an average yield of about 5 tonnes.”
At present in Jajira upazila, 1,390 farmers have been provided with free fertilizers and seeds through the Upazila Agriculture Office to increase Aus production. Apart from this, production of high quality Aus seeds is underway at the farmer level using modern technology including NATP 2 project, 7 district projects and high quality rice wheat and jute seed production projects.
Deputy Director of Shariatpur DAE Golam Rasul said, Aus paddy has already been harvested from 60 per cent of the total farmland in the district. If the weather is favorable till the paddy is harvested totally, there is a possibility of bumper yield. Due to proper rains in the Aus season, the production has exceeded targeted level, he added. He also said that Aus rice is delicious to eat.
The soil of Shariatpur district is quite suitable for Aus paddy production. The agriculturist also said that due to the demand for this rice, the farmers cultivate Aus every year with growing interest.
