RANGPUR, Aug 22: Floating Aman seedbeds are gaining popularity among the peasants of different areas under Kawnia upazila in the district.
With the assistance of agriculture officials a good of farmers have been using such floating seedbeds for growing Aman seedlings at different areas of the upazila.
This year, due to flood the transplanted Aman and seedlings had been damaged, resulting in scarcity of saplings of Aman paddy. This has made the growers apprehensive about the expected output of the crop in the upazila.
The agriculture department advised farmers to prepare floating Aman seedbeds on water to recover from the crisis of saplings across the flood affected areas.
In this way the seedlings can be ready for transplantation on time within the Aman cultivation season and might have no possibility of being perished if flood further occurs, sources said.
Visiting different areas including Nijpara, Tepa-madhupur, Ramchandrapur villages it was found that around 20 seedbeds have been setup in the area so far.
A number of cultivators said that they have prepared floating seedbeds with the assistance of the upazila agriculture officers.
Due to low cost and remarkable success many peasants are showing their interest to learn the method of floating seedbeds, they added.
According Upazila Agriculture office sources, the seedbeds have been prepared in the areas with the aim to recover the loss caused by the flood. Aman paddy will be cultivated on around 11,573 hectares of land in the upazila this year, sources added.
