Farmers of Sylhet division have started harvesting Aus paddy.
Crops on some 3,557 hectares of land have already been harvested, a DAE official informed on Sunday afternoon.
The farmers earlier cultivated Aus paddy on 170,077 hectares of land though the target was 174,824 hectares, the official further said.
The official at the DAE divisional office said under the incentive programme, 30,000 bighas of land were cultivated against the last year's 25,700 bighas.
It includes 9,000 bighas in each of Sylhet, Moulvibazar and Habiganj districts and 3000 bighas in Sunamganj district. So far crops on 495 hectares under the incentive programe had been harvested.
The total amount includes, Tk 159,75000 for each of Sylhet, Moulvibazar and Habiganj districts while taka 4792,500 is for Sunamganj district. For each bigha land a farmer was supplied 5.0 kg of seed, 20 kg of urea, 10 kg of DAP, 10 kg of MoP fertiliser, the source informed.
Besides, Tk 11.6 million had been spent in incentive for the selected marginal farmers of three districts for cultivating Nerika paddy. It includes, Tk 1887,750 for 900 farmers of Sylhet, Tk 2517,000 for 1200 in Moulvibazar and Tk 7236,375 for 3,450 in Habiganj.
The amount was spent for seed, fertilisers and others' assistance. Besides, separate amount was given for clearing weeds, the official informed, till today 74 hectares of Nerika paddy was harvested.
BSS adds: in Rangpur, agriculture experts at a crop cutting function have called for enhancing less irrigation-water consuming Aus rice cultivation as an additional cereal crop to increase rice production for attaining food security.
They made the call at the function organised for harvesting BRRI Dhan48 variety Aus rice on the exhibition plot of farmer Sultan Ahmed at Jamuna Block of Durgapur union under Ulipur upazila of Kurigram on Wednesday afternoon.
Ulipur upazila agriculture office of the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) organised the function for the farmers to exhibit cultivation technologies of BRRI dhan48 Aus rice and inspire them in enhancing cultivation of the crop.
With Ulipur Upazila Nirbahi Officer Muhammad Shafikul Islam in the chair, Ulipur Upazila Chairman Md Haider Ali attended the function and launched crop cutting of BRRI dhan48 Aus rice as the chief guest.
Ulipur Upazila Agriculture Officer of the DAE Agriculturist Ashok Kumar Roy, Additional Upazila Agriculture Officer Agriculturist Abdul Gaffer, Durgapur union Chairman Abed Ali Sarder, Sub-assistant Agriculture Officer Abdul Aziz and farmer Sultan Ahmed, spoke.
Agriculturist Roy narrated the importance of popularising Aus rice cultivation using seasonal rainwater to gradually replace costly Boro rice farming for reduce lifting of underground water to improve environment, ecology and biodiversity.
"Cultivation of the short duration (100-105 days) BRRI Dhan48 Aus rice requires only three to four irrigations to get average yield rate of 5.0 tonnes of the crop in terms of paddy per hectare after harvest when Boro rice farming requires 20-30 times irrigations," he said.
Agriculturist Gaffer said the present government has taken various steps, including distribution of special incentives and quality seed, to enhance cultivation of eco-friendly and short duration Aus rice varieties like BRRI Dhan48 using the latest technologies.
"The farmers can increase rice production by enhancing cultivation of Aus rice, mostly using unused seasonal rainwater, during the off season as an additional substitute cereal crop to costly Boro rice farming without hampering Aman rice cultivation," he said.
The chief guest urged the agriculturists to disseminate latest technologies to farmers for enhancing Aus rice cultivation during the off-season between late May and early August to gradually reduce costly Boro cultivation that requires huge irrigation water.