44,937 hectares of cropland come under irrigation in Sylhet region

Our Correspondent

SYLHET, Mar 08: About 44,937 hectares of cropland in Sylhet region have been brought under irrigation facility during the current Rabi season, official sources said.

An official at the DAE Sylhet divisional office said the total area includes 1134 hectares of wheat land, 360 hectares of maize, 5104 hectares of potato, 2040 hectares of chilli, 2200 hectares of mustard, 98 hectares of onion, 2250 hectares of some other minor crops and highest 31,750 hectares of varieties of vegetable.

Additional director of DAE Md Altabur Rahman said in general the peasants of this region had been far behind in agriculture as well as in irrigation for farming purposes. However, things got a major change during the last few years as a good number of farmers were now coming up on agriculture by cultivating arable lands. Besides use of irrigation equipments like low lift pumps, shallow tubewells etc have been on rise, the official added.

Superintending engineer of Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation (BADC), Sylhet, Shahab Uddin Talukder said the corporation had already started implementing a major project styled 'Sylhet Division minor Irrigation Development project' in this region. It had already helped bringing a vast tract of cropland under farming through irrigation in all the four districts -- Sylhet, Habiganj, Moulvibazar and Sunamganj, he added.

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