Boro farming exceeds target in Narsingdi, Naogaon districts

NARSINGDI, Feb 26 (BSS): Cultivation of Boro paddy in Narsingdi district has surpassed its target this season due to favourable climate condition and adequate supply of high quality seed.

The Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) official sources said the department has set a target to cultivate Boro paddy on 55,580 hectares of land in the six upazilas of the district with the production target of 218,000 tonnes of clean rice this season.

But farmers of the district have cultivated 600 hectares more land then the target.

The enthusiastic farmers are now busy in nurturing the paddy fields with the hopes of getting more production of rice then the target this season.

Deputy Director DAE, Narsingdi Shovan Chandra Dhar told the news agency that to make the cultivation programme a success, the Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation (BADC) distributed high quality Boro seed to the farmers of the district at fair price.

Besides necessary measures have been taken to distributed fertilisers, insecticides and other agriculture inputs among the farmers. Different commercial banks including Bangladesh Krishi Bank also has been distributed easy term loan to the farmers.

Meanwhile, our correspondent from Naogaon adds: Boro paddy cultivation in the district is going to exceed soon due to favourable condition, agriculture officials said.

The gray farmland across the district has turned into green fields with the rising plants of the crop.

Sources at the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) said the official target of boro cultivation in the district was fixed at 1,88,186 hectares of land. However, the farmers under eleven upazilas of the district have already cultivated boro paddy on 1,85,000 hectares of land.

The plantation process will continue till mid March and it will hopefully set a new record for boro cultivation in the district this year, the sources added.

One Ibrahim Khalil of Naogaon Sadar said he is growing Boro on two bighas of land and is preparing for transplanting saplings on more land.

Deputy director of DAE, Naogaon, Monojit Kumar Mallik said the farmers are focusing more on boro paddy farming in the recent years as the pest attack has been reduced thanks to the better crop management.

The agriculture officers are working relentlessly across the district to make the boro cultivation programme successful, he added.