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Bogura farmers expect 1.2m tonnes potato

OUR CORRESPONDENT | December 06, 2019 00:00:00


Farmers taking care at a potato field in a Bogura village — FE Photo

BOGURA, Dec 05: Farmers in the district are expecting a yield around 1.2 million tonnes of potato this season.

Along with DAE, farmers are expecting abundant yield even though potato is cultivated on less than 10,000 hectares of land in the area compared to previous year.

Agriculture officials and potato growers said there will be good yield of potato this year as the weather condition is good.

High-yielding varieties and organic fertilisers have encouraged the peasants to grow the item on a commercial basis.

Harvest will start from the first week of March.

Meanwhile, newly-harvested potatoes are being sold at Tk 50 to Tk 60 in the retail market.

There is no news of pest attack in the potato fields in Shibganj, Sonatla, Dhunat, Dupchanchia, Shariakandi, Adamdighi, Kahalu, Nandigram, Gabtoly, Shajhanpur and Sherpur upazilas of the district.

According to DAE the target of potato cultivation in the district during the last year was on some 64,430 hectares of land. The yield was over 1.3 million tonnes.

But this year, the target area has been set at 55,408 hectares due to reduced cultivable land. And the production target is estimated over 1.2 million tonnes.

Although farmers could not be happy with the price of potato due to the increase in yield, consumers were relieved that potato prices were tolerable.

Potato farmers will get more interest in farming if they get fair price their produce, said sub-assistance agriculture officer Faridur Rahman.

Deputy Director of DAE Abul Kashem Azad said potato farming should be expanded across the country.

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