A large number of growers are passing a busy time in farming direct-seeded garlic in the Rajshahi region, including its vast Barind area during the current season.
They are optimistic of getting a bumper yield this year due to the favourable weather conditions, said sources.
Lucrative market price and good yield of the spicy crop have encouraged the farmers to sow garlic using an eco-friendly method on their lands.
Rafiqul Islam, a farmer of Pirijpur village got a bumper yield in 2016 cultivating garlic on a 10-decimal land using the zero tillage method on trial basis.
In 2017, he earned a profit of Taka 62,000 spending Taka 54,000 in garlic farming which inspired him to extend the farming this year, according to a BSS report.
Farmers are getting more involved in the spicy crop cultivation using zero tillage method just after harvesting their transplanted aman paddy, said a senior scientific officer of Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute (BARI), Dr Shakhawat Hossain.
Residual values of chemical and organic fertilisers and soil moisture of the paddy field helps the garlic farming enormously, he said.
Dr Hossain said adoption of large-scale zero tillage method for sowing seed is very effective towards increasing production of garlic by saving costs of labour, irrigation and insecticides.
Many government and non-government development entities are working for furthermore promotion of water-saving crops in the Barind area while the zero tillage garlic farming opens up a new door to this endeavour, he added.
