A partial view of an Aus field in Sylhet — FE Photo SYLHET, May 20: With a target to bring a large tract of land under Aus farming in Sylhet division in the Kharif-1 season, the farmers in different areas are busy preparing seedbeds. Aus seedbed target- 8828 hectares of land- has already surpassed with 9,085 hectares, a DAE official informed on Sunday afternoon.
An official at the DAE informed a programme has been taken up to bring 174,824 hectares of land in the four districts under Aus cultivation. It includes 65,703 hectares of land in Sylhet, 49,809 hectares in Moulvibazar, 46,466 hectares in Habiganj and 12,846 hectares in Sunamganj.
Up to Sunday, 8,790 hectares have already been cultivated. It is 5.0 per cent of the season’s target.
The total target of production has been set at 440,807 tonnes of rice, the official added. It includes 1138 tonnes from hybrid varieties and 434,250 tonnes from high yielding while 5420 tonnes would be from the local varieties.
The DAE in the last year had to revise the division's target from its initial area of 133,028 hectares to 176,919 hectares in a bid to recoup the loss of Boro paddy by the repeated and early floods. However, the total Aus paddy cultivated area stood at 170, 782 hectares that season.
Md Altabur Rahman, additional director of DAE Sylhet division, said incentive disbursement among the listed poor farmers for Aus cultivation has been completed. Earlier, the government had sanctioned Tk 527,17,500 in assistance for the poor farmers in the division in a bid to help them cultivating Aus paddy during the current season.
Under the special incentive programme, 33,000 bighas of land are to be cultivated against the last year's 25,700 bighas. It includes 10,000 bighas in each of Sylhet, Moulvibazar and Habiganj districts and 3000 bighas in Sunamganj district.
The total amount includes, Taka 159,75000 for each of Sylhet, Moulvibazar and Habiganj districts while Taka 4792,500 is for Sunamganj district. For each bigha land a farmer is being supplied with 5.0 kg of seed, 20 kg of urea, 10 kg of DAP and 10 kg of MoP fertilisers, the source informed.
Besides, Tk 11641,115 had been spent in incentive for the marginal farmers in the three districts for cultivating Nerika paddy during the season. 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.
© 2024 - All Rights with The Financial Express
