RANGPUR: The Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) has fixed a target of producing 63, 661 tonnes of wheat from 18,800 hectares of land in all five districts in Rangpur agriculture region during this Rabi season.
Officials of the DAE said farmers produced 66,283 tonnes of wheat from 21,160 hectares of land against the fixed production target of 69,630 tonnes from 19,550 hectares of land during the last Rabi season in the region.
To make the wheat farming programme a success, the government through the DAE is distributing wheat seeds, Di-ammonium Phosphate and Muriate of Potash fertilisers as special agriculture incentives among small and marginal farmers.
"The process of sowing wheat seeds will get momentum with further progress in harvesting Aman rice crop in the region from next month," he said.
The DAE, Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation (BADC), Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute (BARI) and other agriculture-related organisations have taken ample steps to make the intensive of wheat farming programme a success this season.
"The authorities concerned have taken measures to ensure supply of high quality wheat seeds, latest technologies, fertilisers and other inputs to farmers to promote cultivation of the cereal crop," Agriculturist Iqbal added.
Farmers are mostly cultivating 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.
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 largely saving labour costs.
Formerly, wheat production was being affected due to adverse impacts of high temperature on its farming 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 excellent production in recent years," Rashid added.
Agriculturist Dr Md Abdul Mazid, who got the Independence Award-2018 (food security), lauded the government for encouraging farmers in cultivating high yielding wheat varieties using latest technologies to get excellent production and more profits.
Farmers Ariful Haque, Manik Mian, Lutfar Rahman, Golam Mostafa and Aiyub Ali of different villages in Rangpur Sadar said they are preparing to sow wheat seeds on their croplands after harvesting Aman rice.
