NAOGAON, Feb 16: The Atrai upazila of Naogaon district has already achieved fame as the 'best maize cultivation area' in the district.
Farmers under eight unions under Atrai upazila of the district are poised for bumper production of maize this season as favourable climate condition is prevailing in the area since the early stage of the cultivation.
The Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) this year has set a target of maize cultivation at 4,500 hectares in eight unions of the upazila. However, the DAE is expecting that the cultivation area would be expanded by 500 to 700 hectares more.
Most of the farmers have cultivated NK-40, Sunshine-900, S Gold K-827 and Pacific-339 varieties of maize.
One Ayet Ali of Borodanga village, pointing a large area of farmland, said once these lands were only ploughed for paddy cultivation.
But now-a-days the farmers are switching to maize cultivation in increasing numbers because of better prices of the cereal and high demand by feed and flour mills throughout the year.
Farmer Abdul Jabbar of Chowbari village informed he incurred loss last year due to low price of potato. So he cultivated maize on large scale this year to recoup the loss.
Deputy assistant agriculture officer, Atrai, Hiru Pramanik said farmers are showing interest to cultivate maize due to low production cost, easy management and availability of quality seeds, fertilisers and insecticides in the market.
Upazila agriculture officer AKM Kausar Hosaain stated farmers in the area are trying to recover losses they incurred last year due to significant drop in the price of paddy and potato by putting a vast area under maize farming.
The DAE officials and fieldworkers have trained the farmers on pest management and other care of maize to attain a bumper harvest this season, he added.
