RANGPUR, Apr 25 (BSS): The enthusiastic farmers are continuing cultivation of jute in full swing as seed sowing process of the crop is nearing completion in all five districts of Rangpur agriculture region.
Officials of the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) said a target of producing over 0.67 million bales of jute fibre has been fixed from 58,250 hectares of land in the region this season.
The farmers already completed sowing of jute seed by Tuesday on 31,274 hectares of land, around 53.70 per cent of the fixed cultivation target of the crop.
"The farmers are sowing jute seed in full swing amid favourable climatic conditions and the process will continue till the middle of next month," Horticulture Specialist of DAE at its regional office Khondker Md Mesbahul Islam told the news agency on Wednesday.
The fixed target includes production of 0.64 million bales of ‘Tosha’ variety jute fibre from 54,400 hectares of land, 30,192 bales of ‘Deshi’ variety fibre from 3,400 hectares and 3,726 bales of ‘Mechta’ variety of jute from 450 hectares of land in the region.
The enthusiastic farmers are showing more interest in jute farming after getting its repeated bumper production and lucrative market price in recent years.
Deputy Director of the DAE at its regional office Md. Moniruzzaman said jute cultivation became popular again among farmers after the government declared jute as the national agricultural product and made use of jute sacs mandatory in various sectors.
"To make the fixed jute farming target successful, Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation, other recommended government and non-government organisations and dealers supplied high quality jute seed to farmers this season," he said.
Deputy Director of the DAE Dr Sarwarul Haque said the present government has taken adequate steps and the field level agriculture officials are assisting farmers to make the jute cultivation programme successful in the region this season.
Farmers Manik Mian, Ariful Haque and Azizur Rahman, of different villages in Badarganj here said they had already sowed jute seed on their crop lands and the tender plants are growing superbly amid favourable climatic conditions.
Farmers Echhahaq Ali, Lokman Hossain, Ivy Begum, Mohsin Ali, Ayub Ali and Abdul Jalil of different villages in Mominpur union of Sadar upazila here said they got quality jute seed timely this year to complete sowing of the same by last week.
They thanked the government for supplying quality jute seed and providing training on latest technologies to ease jute-rotting process amid drought situation and upgrade fibre quality using ribbon-retting methods.
Agriculturist Dr Md Abdul Mazid, who got the Independence Award 2018 Medal on food security category last year, said popularisation of latest farming technologies and jute rotting methods could enhance production of quality fibre and export of the commodity.
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