RAJSHAHI, Jan 2, 2022 (BSS) - Around 73,582 tonnes of lentils are
expected to be produced from 55,088 hectares of land in the division during
the current Rabi season, officials said.

     Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) has set the target of
producing 45,468 tonnes of lentil from 31,258 hectares of land in four
districts of its Rajshahi Agricultural Zone, while 28,114 tonnes from 19,830
hectares of land in four other districts of Bogura zone.

     DAE's Additional Director Sirajul Islam said all possible measures were
adopted to attain the production target of lentil as its newly developed high
yielding varieties were provided to the farmers.

     Some 9,000 farmers were given seed and fertilizer support worth around
Taka 13.05 crore for lentil farmers free of cost under the government's
agriculture incentive programme.

     Sub Assistant Agriculture Officer Atanu Sarker told BSS that the farmers
are seen getting better yield of the cash crop for the last couple of years
as a result of promoting high yielding varieties and modern management.

     All the government and non-government entities concerned are motivating
the farmers for farming various water-saving crops including lentil in the
Barind area to lessen the gradually mounting pressure on underground water,
he said.

     More than 1,500 volunteers are engaged towards encouraging and inspiring
farmers to cultivate the less water consuming crops through water resource
management on behalf of the 'Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM)'
Project.

     DASCOH Foundation has been implementing the IWRM project in 1,280
drought-hit villages of 39 Union Parishad and three municipalities in eight
upazilas of Rajshahi, Naogaon and Chapainawabganj districts supported by
Switzerland since 2015.

     Farmers have started showing interest in lentil cultivation as they
reaped a lucrative market price of the crop in the last couple of years, said
IWRM Project Coordinator Jahangir Alam Khan.

     He also said the farmers in high Barind areas have to spend much for
irrigation in paddy farming, but lentil cultivation needs less irrigation. So
farmers are interested in cultivating lentils.

     Abul Kalam Azad, a farmer of Polashbari village under Godagari Upazila,
said he is cultivating lentils to avoid hassle in getting irrigation water
for paddy.

     He said he has cultivated lentils on six-bigha of land this year without
spending extra money for irrigation.

     A farmer can get five to six maunds of lentil from per bigha of land.
One maund of lentil is now being sold at Tk 4,000 to 4,300 in local markets,
he said.

     Zakir Hossain, another farmer of Hatibandha village, said the growers
here are showing more interest in lentil cultivation as it does not take much
irrigation cost. Besides, they got abundant production in the last couple of
years.

     Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute's principal scientific officer
Dr Jagadish Chandra Barman said huge lentil output is possible in the Barind
region if it is cultivated on around 80,000 hectares of land, which usually
remains fallow for more than three months after the harvest of transplanted
Aman paddy every year.

     He said the cultivation of pulse has been playing a significant role in
crop intensity and diversification as the cash crop is short-term and it
could be cultivated easily on the rice- based cropping pattern.

     Referring to the immense prospect of the crop, he also said that if the
yield could be enhanced to the expected level through successful expansion of
the modern cultivation method among the growers, the country's hard-earned
foreign currencies would be saved.

     The country has to import a huge quantity of pulses, especially lentils
to meet its domestic demand. Since there is a bright prospect of increasing
its acreage, lentils could be produced in larger amounts with less production
cost and the yield will no doubt lessen pressure on import.