Super bumper output and excellent market price of wheat have made the farmers are happy in northern districts this season, officials, farmers and market sources said.According to sources in the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) and Regional Food Controller’s Office, farmers are selling their produced wheat at over 150 government procurement centres in the northern region at Taka 27 per kg now.Farmers Abul Kalam, Mahfuz Ali, Solaiman Ali, Ivy Begum and Ashutosh Ghosh said they have got super bumper production of the high yielding varieties of wheat and are getting excellent price this time.“We had cultivated wheat using latest conservation agriculture (CA)-based technologies and got average yields between 3.35 and 3.60 tonnes per hectare this time,” they said.They also thanked the present government for fixing wheat purchasing rate at Taka 27 per kg and hoped they would be able to sell their produce at government purchasing centres to get maximum benefits.Horticulture Specialist of DAE Khandaker Md Mesbahul Islam said the
farmers have achieved bumper wheat output following expanded cultivation of high yielding Pradip, Bijoy, Protiva, Sotabdi, Swarna, BARI Gom 25 and 26 varieties of wheat.“The farmers have produced 10.10 lakh tonnes wheat in the region, which is 78.84 percent of the national production target of 12.81 lakh tonnes from 4.20 lakh hectares land this season,” he added.According to the DAE sources, the farmers have produced over 10.10 lakh tonnes wheat, higher by 1.97 lakh tonnes or 24.23 percent than the fixed target of producing 8.13 lakh tonnes this time. The farmers had cultivated wheat on 2.91 lakh heaters land, which is higher by about 9.40 percent or 25,000 hectares than the fixed target of bringing 2.66 lakh hectares land under its cultivation in the northern region this time.The farmers got an excellent average yield rate of 3.46 tonnes wheat per hectare, about 0.41 tonnes higher than the targeted average yield rate of 3.05 tonnes per hectare amid favourable conditions this year.According to the DAE sources, wheat production has been increasing in recent years in the northern region where the farmers produced over 9.71 lakh tonnes wheat during the 2012-2013 and 7.63 lakh tonnes during 2011-2012 Rabi seasons.Deputy Director of DAE Ali Azam said bumper wheat production has been achieved following expanded cultivation of high yielding, disease-resistant, stress-and high temperature tolerant wheat varieties using quality seeds and latest technologies.
He expressed full satisfaction over super bumper wheat yield this year breaking all previous production records to further brighten the prospect of wheat farming to ensure national food security despite climate change. -BSS, Rangpur
