Cropping pattern changing in Barind region

RAJSHAHI, Nov 20 (BSS): Farmers have started changing their conventional cropping pattern in the vast Barind tract due to its water-stressed condition caused by the adverse impact of climate change for the last couple of years.

According to suggestions prescribed by agriculturists, the grassroots farmers are seen opting for cultivating various less-water consuming and drought tolerant crops.

Jatidhar Barman, a farmer of Bodyapur village in Badhair union under Tanore upazila in Rajshahi district, said irrigation commanding area has gradually been reducing in the area.

He said many farmers being failed to get water for irrigation to paddy field are seen cultivating less-water consuming crops like wheat, mustard, maize and pulses.

Dr Shakhawat Hossain, senior scientific officer of On-farm Research Division of BARI, said acreage of the less-water consuming and drought-tolerant crops is gradually rising in the region.

He added that emphasis is being given to the less-irrigation consuming cereal crops to lessen the gradually mounting pressure on underground water.

He viewed that large-scale promotion of less-water consuming crops could be the effective means of mitigating water-stress condition in the drought-prone Barind area.

Referring to various research findings, he mentioned that there are enormous scopes of increasing the acreage of various low-water consuming crops like wheat, black gram, sesame, lentil, maize and mungdal in the high Barind tract.

Dr Ilias Hossain, principal scientific officer of Bangladesh Wheat and Maize Research Institute, said wheat could be cultivated on seven to eight bighas of land with same amount of irrigation-water needed to irrigate one bigha of Boro rice through soil moisture utilisation and the best uses of the modern technologies.