The cropland of Pabna district is full of golden rice. Most of the paddy field has matured, farmers are preparing the fields for harvesting, and in some places, harvesting has started. It has also become necessary to collect hay for the cattle in addition to their own food needs. Due to the high price of straw, many farmers have started harvesting the paddy field before the whole paddy is ripe.
In the meantime, the farmer family has been busy with harvesting paddy, collecting paddy and drying straw. Along with the men, the women of the house are also having a busy time. Now rice is not threshed with cow-buffalo as before, paddy is separated from straw with modern threshing machines. As the men of the house are busy harvesting paddy in the field, the women of the house are doing work like blowing, drying and drying the paddy.
Nusrat Kabir, the officer of Bera Upazila Directorate of Agriculture, said that the target for Aman paddy cultivation in Bera Upazila this season was 7,250 hectares of land. About 30 hectares of land has been cultivated more than the target in this season. During the Amon season, about 6 thousand 850 hectares or 54 thousand 800 bighas of land in Bera upazila have been cultivated with woven Amon and 4 thousand hectares or 3 thousand 2 hundred bighas of planted Amon paddy. The target level of paddy production has been set at 11 thousand 989 metric tons. Out of which, woven Amon is 10,549 metric tons and Ropa Amon is 1,440 metric tons. During the Aman season, the improved varieties of Aman paddy, Brie-78, Brie-39, Brie-49, Swarna and Bina-7 and Bina-17 have been planted. Farmers of the area are becoming interested in cultivation of Bri-87 variety of high yielding 20 to 22 maunds per bigha. He expects the target to be exceeded due to favorable weather and good yield. An average yield of 15 to 17 maunds per bigha of planted Aman paddy and 6 to 7 maunds per bigha of sown aman is estimated.
When they came to sell paddy at the C&B paddy market in Saniba, they said that Ropa Aman farmers A. Bari, Azahar Molla of Punduria village of Chakla union of upazila, Md. Anshar Ali and Kermat Ali of Kaitola village of Kaitola union said that only paddy harvesting has started in the field, only a few maunds of paddy are harvested. I brought it to sell. I sold Aman BRRI-39 at the price of 1450 to 1500 taka. Farmer Kavi Montu Fakir of Haturia Paschim Para village, who came to sell the original variety of woven aman paddy at the market, said that I sold it at the price of 130 to 300 taka. Good prices have been received and the yield of paddy has also been good this time due to the absence of natural calamities. The farmers who came to sell rice in the market said that they will cultivate more rice in the next season due to the demand and good price of rice.
Cultivation of woven Aman paddy is more in the char areas of Dhalla Char Union, Masumdia Union, Ruppur Union, Jatsakini Union and Haturia Nakalia Union of the upazila. Aksed Ali of Charsandashia village of Haturia Nakalia union, Tafiz Uddin of Charnagdah village, Fazlul Haque of Dhalachar, and other farmers from different areas of the upazila, it is known that the desired yield of Aman rice has been achieved due to the absence of disease and spider attack.
Assistant Agriculture Officer Yunus Ali said, farmers are cultivating Bona Aman rice as the farmer does not spend much in the cultivation of woven Aman rice. It can be said that there is not much cost in the cultivation of woven Aman rice as fertilizers and pesticides are not used. If the yield is good, an average of 6 to 7 maunds of paddy is available per bigha. He thinks that the desired yield of sown Aman and Ropa Aman paddy has been achieved due to late arrival of monsoon water and not much flood in this season.
Shahidul Islam, a farmer of Brishalikha Mohalla in Bara town area, said that I was very worried about Cyclone Sitrang. With a slight impact of the cyclone, the paddy field could have turned upside down and turned into soil, but our area was not harmed by the cyclone, only the Aman paddy planted by Sitrang has fallen to the ground. Even if there is no effect on rice yield, more workers are needed to cut rice.
