SYLHET, May 24: Boro harvest is about to be completed in days in Sylhet region and the common farmers are seemed to be happy as they managed making a safe harvest amid a troubled weather. Non-haor areas harvested 93 per cent while it is about 99 per cent in haor region.
Already 466,676 hectares of land is harvested out of 481,521 hectares cultivated in the division, an official informed this afternoon. However, the farmers had to suffer due to shortage of labourers and rough weather with rains in the past few weeks in the region.
Additional Director of the DAE, Sylhet divisional office, Md Altabur Rahman told this correspondent on Thursday that on average over 93 per cent crop is already harvested. However, in some pockets on the Haor region are to be harvested in days while non-areas' harvest is almost complete.
In the pretext of last year's bitter experience of disasterous loss due to excess rains and early floods at the first week of April the farmers had to harvest the crop albeit earlier this year. However, on many areas this year they were compelled to start farming late for reasons, he added, so the harvest would take 3 to 4 days.
In a bid to averting possible excess rains and early floods, the farmers were suggested for cultivating short duration varieties like BRRI-28 and BRRI-29 on the vast tract of the region, the official said, adding, they also responded to it. Besides, the government supplied seeds of these varieties through the Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation (BADC) to farmers. Especially about 4,00,000 farmers were given agri-inputs including fertiliser and seeds in assistance as they had lost the crop last year.
Although there had been sporadic pest attack on areas, a good harvest at the end of the season was there, officials and farmers said.
The official further said per hectare yield in the region had so far been estimated at 4.78 tonnes rice from hybrid, 3.88 tonnes from the high yielding varieties and 1.86 tonnes from local varieties.
The local varieties include Khoiaboro, Tepi, Rata and Gochi while the hybrid varieties include SL8H, Hera and Jagoron. The HYVs include BRRI-28 and BRRI-45.
Farmer Abdul Hasib of Golapganj upazila in Sylhet said although the farmers had suffered due to rains and labour shortage, they managed a safe harvest at last. However, many people were compelled to harvest half-ripen paddy at the beginning while many had to incur loss due to fungal diseases on paddy plants.
Meanwhile, BSS adds: In Panchagarh, farmers are expecting to complete Boro harvest within a few days.
The Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE), Panchagarh has brought 33,000 hectares of land in all the five upazilas of the district under Boro cultivation with a production target of 1,34,7,00 tonnes of rice.
DAE sources said 10,000 hectares of land has been cultivated in Sadar, 8,200 hectares in Debiganj, 5,300 hectares in Boda, 6,000 hectares in Atowary and 3,500 hectares of land in Tetulia upazila.
According to the DAE sources, Boro paddy varieties cultivated in the district includes BRRI-28, BRRI-29, BARRI-33, BARRI-45, BARRI-50, Agro-14, Rajkumar, Rupashi Bangla and Jagaroni.
To make the Boro paddy cultivation a success, different commercial banks, including Rajshahi Krishi Bank have disbursed a significant amount of credit among the farmers in the district, sources concerned said.
In different areas of the district, farmers are busy in harvesting and thrashing Boro paddy with modern technology machine with much enthusiasm.
Farmers in the district have been happy to see a bumper production of Boro paddy his season.
Deputy Director (DD), DAE, Panchagarh Md Samchul Huque told the news agency that their field-level officers were motivating the farmers to adopt the modern technological support to boost production of paddy.