The farmers of char areas along the river Karatoa in Sadar upazila and
other parts of the district have harvested a bumper production of
maize this year.
The price and demand of maize is high this year, according to farmers
and department of agriculture extension.
Maize cultivation in char areas and some other places of the district
are on the rise as most of the land in this region is sandy where
other usual crops do not grow well, official sources said.
The Farmers of the char areas cultivate maize at low cost and at the
same time the selling price is high.
A farmer can produce 15 to 20 mounds of maize on one bigha (33
decimal) of land by spending of Tk 1,500 to Tk 2,000 and can sell per
mound of maize at Tk 10,000 to Tk 12,000, the agriculture office
sources said.
This year, the farmers earned substantial amount of profit by selling
their produce, said sources in Department of Agriculture Extension
(DAE), in Panchagarh while talking to this correspondent. ‘We will
earn a profit at least Tk 5,000 from 10 decimal of land’, said
Rashidul Islam a farmer of village Soubuspara of Sadar upazila.
Abbas Uddin, another farmer of Debiduba village said that he had
cultivated maize on two bighas of land this year and earned over Tk
25,000 deducting the cost of cultivation. This year he produced some
60 mounds of maize and the profit would be above Tk 50,000.
Traders from different parts of the country come here to buy maize and
they supply maize to different districts including Dhaka, Dinajpur and
Natore.
The Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) fixed 11,100 hectares of
land for maize cultivation in the district this year but the
cultivation target exceeded due to good production last
year.
The farmers of the district are also showing keen interest in low-cost
maize cultivation as it requires less fertilizer and irrigation, said
deputy director of DAE, Najrul Islam .
(BSS, Gaibandha)
