Hundred percent target of Aman farming in Panchagarh district has been achieved.
According to the office of the Deputy Director of the District Agriculture Extension Department, this year the target of Aman farming has been set on 1,25,000 hectares of land in the district.
Farmers have planted Aman paddy seedlings in most of the upland areas of the district during the Bengali month of Aashar. Now, after harvesting golden fiber jute of only the low lands, Aman seedlings will be planted on the rest of the lands will be planted in the middle of the monsoon season in the Bengali month of Shraban.
The farmers of the district mostly cultivate imported variety of paddy, Swarna. According to the farmers, 3.3 metric tons of paddy of this variety is produced in per hectare of land.
However, due to the yield, the farmers are now more interested in the cultivation of the high-yielding BRRI-Dhan 93 variety developed by Bangladesh Rice Research Institute as 3.70 metric tons of paddy of this variety is produced in per hectare of land. Besides, Bri-Dhan 49, Bri-Dhan 51, Bri-Dhan 52 and Bri-Dhan 34 are aromatic are cultivated on 350 hectares of land in the district. Moreover, local verities Chinigura Nenia and Kalajira are also cultivated there.
Abdul Latif, farmer of Magura village under Tentulia Upazila, said Ropa Aman seedlings have been planted on high lands as there was a lot of rainfall at the beginning of the monsoon season. The yield of Ropa Aman will be high if it is planted in the month of Aashar.
Upazila Agriculture Officer of Tentulia, Agriculturist Mst Tamanna Ferdous said the planting of Ropa Aman has been completed in most of the high lands of Tentulia. The water of canal lands has already dropped. The Ropa Aman planting will be completed within next week.
Deputy Director of Panchagarh District Department of Agricultural Extension, Agriculturist Md Abdul Matin, said the paddy and other crops cultivable land is decreasing due to tea cultivation in the district. However, tea cultivators are returning to cultivation of other crops as they are not getting fair price for tea leaf. The farmers are being motivated to farm high yielding verities of paddy developed by BRRI. The target of Aman farming will be achieved in the district this year, he said.
