RAJSHAHI, Mar 30 (BSS): Prospect of pulse including chickpea farming is very bright in the region as its topography along with soil condition is suitable for the cereal crops.
"There are enormous prospects of harvesting additional 10,000 tonnes of pulse every year in the region," said Dr Roish Uddin Chowdhury, director of Pulse Research Centre (PRC), an entity of Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute (BARI).
Talking to the news agency, he said PRC has been putting in its level best efforts to enhance the pulse farming acreage after the best uses of existing prospects in the region including its vast Barind tract comprising Rajshahi, Naogaon and Chapainawabganj districts.
Farmers are being encouraged and motivated towards promoting the developed high yielding varieties of pulses like chickpea, lentil and grasspea for boosting yield to meet the gradually mounting demands of pulse side by side with making the farmers benefited.
"We are gradually expanding the modern varieties developed by PRC and BARI through establishing demonstration blocks in farmers' fields in a massive way," Dr Roish Chowdhury added.
In the current season, lentil demonstration block on 38 hectares of land, chickpea projection on 27 hectares and grasspea on 16 hectares were established only in the drought-prone Barind area taking its water-stressed condition under consideration.
Dr Roish Uddin Chowdhury viewed around 20,000 bigha of land remain fallow for more than three months after harvesting of transplanted Aman paddy every year.
There has been a bright scope of bringing the huge land under the three pulses farming through the best uses of those alongside increasing cropping intensity amid the current water-stress condition.
To make the farming popular and profitable at the growers' level, the PRC has started conducting various programmes including farmers' motivation and training, field demonstration and supplying necessary inputs like seed the years ahead.
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