Dhaka – Rain-fed Aus should be reintroduced in the country’s northern region, where great stretches of land have turned fallow due to the depletion in levels of groundwater, observed officials on Tuesday.
They also noted that the related research institutes in the country should focus more on the varietal development of Aus to improve its yield.
The observations came at a seminar on “Brac’s Intervention in Increasing Resilience of Agriculture and Aquaculture Systems in the South”, organised by Brac, the world’s largest NGO, at its headquarters.Speaking on the occasion, Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) director general Abu Hanif Miah said, “We can go for Aus cultivation in rain-fed conditions in the northern region where a large extent of the land has already turned fallow due to the drawdown effect (depletion of groundwater level).”
“Last year, I visited Naogaon and was astonished to know that about 9,000 hectares of land has turned fallow. In one upazila alone – Torsa – about 7,500 hectares of land has turned fallow,” he said.
“Such fallow land has now become a common feature of the northern region due to groundwater depletion caused by excessive irrigation during the Boro season, and we can only think about introducing rain-fed Aus to help the farmers there,” he added.
Abu Hanif Miah noted that despite the adverse conditions which can only suit rain-fed Aus cultivation, no progress has been made towards extending its cultivation.
The acreage devoted to Aus has remained almost static over the last few years – about 10.5 lakh hectares – and the yield is also not increasing due to the lack of high-yielding varieties (HYV) suited to the Aus season, he said.
Last year, the average yield of Aus was recorded at 2.21 tonnes per hectare, described as ‘unsatisfactory’ compared to the yields of Boro and Aman by Hanif Miah.
Agriculture Ministry additional director as well as director general of the Seed Wing, Anwar Faruque, said the research institutes should focus more on varietal development of Aus so that the yield can be increased and the crop becomes short-durational.
The seminar was presided over by Brac senior director Babar Kabir. – UNB
