RANGPUR, April 20, 2022 (BSS) - Farmers produced 63,830 tonnes of wheat in all five districts of Rangpur agriculture region during the current Rabi season.
 
Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) official said a target of producing 63,661 tonnes of wheat from 18,800 hectares of land was fixed for the region this time.
 
"Farmers finally cultivated wheat on 18,285 hectares of land, 515 hectares or 2.74 percent less than the fixed farming target this season," Additional Director of the DAE for Rangpur region Agriculturist Md. Tauhidul Ikbal said.
 
The fixed farming target of wheat marked a little shortfall following crop diversification and cultivation of vegetables and maize on more lands in the region.
 
The DAE, Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) and other agriculture related organizations extended assistance to the farmers to make the wheat farming program a success.
 
"The government supplied quality wheat seeds and provided the latest technologies, training, fertilizers and other inputs to the farmers who finally achieved a better wheat production this season," Ikbal said.
 
The farmers mostly cultivated high yielding wheat varieties like 'Bijoy', 'Pradip', 'Sotabdi', BARI Gom25, BARI Gom26, BARI Gom27, BARI Gom28 and BARI Gom29 using conservation agriculture (CA)-based technologies to enhance production.
 
Senior Coordinator (Agriculture and Environment) of RDRS Bangladesh Agriculturist Mamunur Rashid said the farmers are getting high rates of wheat, farming the crop adopting latest technologies being provided by the government.
 
"Adoption of the CA-based strip tillage and bed planting methods in sowing wheat seeds using seeder machines largely increases wheat yield reducing need for irrigation compared to the full tillage methods and saving labour costs greatly," he said.
 
In the past, wheat production was being affected due to adverse impacts of high temperature from flowering to ripening stages and late sowing of seeds after harvesting late varieties of Aman rice and use of low quality local seeds.
 
"However, farmers are sowing high quality, disease resistant and stress tolerant varieties of wheat seeds timely using the lowest cost CA-based technologies after harvesting short duration Aman rice to get bumper output," Rashid added.
      
Deputy Director of the DAE for Rangpur Agriculturist Md. Obaidur Rahman Mandal said there was no recurrence of blast disease this time and farmers got an excellent yield rate of 3.49 tonnes of wheat per hectare in the region.
 
Talking to BSS, farmers Abduyul Hye, Amirul Islam, Abdur rahman and Abul kalam of different villages here expressed satisfaction over excellent yield rate of wheat and its present market price between Taka 1,050 and 1,200 per maund (every 40 kg).