Our Correspondent
SYLHET, Aug 25: Aus harvest is going on in all the four districts of Sylhet division.
The farmers had cultivated 170,077 hectares, about 97 per cent of the targeted 174,824 hectares, the DAE official informed.
Of the total 60,427 hectares are in Sylhet, 49,440 hectares in Moulvibazar, 46,720 hectares in Habiganj and 13,490 hectares in Sunamganj.
The DAE in the last year had to revise the division's target from its initial area of 133,028 hectares to 176,919. However, the total Aus paddy cultivated area stood at 170,782 hectares that season.
The official at the DAE's divisional office informed, under the incentive programme, 30,000 bighas of land were cultivated against the last year's 25,700 bighas. It includes 9,000 bighas in each of Sylhet, Moulvibazar and Habiganj districts and 3000 bighas in Sunamganj district.
The total amount includes, Tk 159,75000 for each of Sylhet, Moulvibazar and Habiganj districts while Tk 4792,500 is for Sunamganj district.
For each bigha land a farmer was provided 5.0 kg seed, 20 kg urea, 10 kg DAP and 10 kg MoP fertiliser, the source informed.
Besides, Tk 11641,115 had been spent in incentive for the selected marginal farmers of 3 districts for cultivating Nerika paddy.
It includes, Tk 1887,750 for 900 farmers of Sylhet, Tk 2517,000 for 1200 in Moulvibazar and Tk 7236,375 for 3450 in Habiganj.
The amount was spent for seed, fertilisers and others' assistance. Besides, separate amount was given for clearing weeds, the official informed.
UNB adds: In Cumilla, following last year's success, rice farmers of the district once again are looking forward to another successful harvest of the Aman variety this year, as moderate rainfall during the ongoing monsoon season allowed them to plant their seedlings at the right time.
This year, Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) of the district has set the target for plantation of Aman rice as 106,950 hectares while rice production target is 287,960 tonnes.
If the weather remains amenable then the expected production target may be exceeded, said Deputy Director of DAE of the district, Dilip Odhikari.
In the upazilas with high land, Aman rice has been planted over 9, 360 hectares so far while upazilas in low lying areas including Daudkandi, Homna, Titas, and Chandina are still deprived because of waterlogging.
According to DAE, Aus rice was cultivated over 71,600 hectares in Cumilla during the current Aus season and production was also very good.
Farmers already have taken 10 per cent of the crop home. If weather remains favourable, farmers can look forward to taking home the remaining crop safely as well, said a farmer of Sadar South upazila, Abdul Halim.
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