Panchagarh eyes high Boro output

Rice blast outbreak in Sirajganj

FE Team | Published: April 19, 2018 21:20:33

PANCHAGARH, Apr 18 (BSS): Farmers are expecting a high Boro yield in the district due to favorable climatic condition during this season while the paddy harvesting has just started.
The Boro paddy fields are covered with golden colour and farmers are eagerly waiting to harvest their yields.
The overall weather condition for Boro paddy has favorable till now. The farmers and the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) hope that the weather would have remain favorable for harvesting paddy, DAE officials said.
They said around 23,000 hectares of arable land has been brought under Boro cultivation this year with a production target of 3,35,000 tonnes of rice.
Meanwhile, UNB adds: In Sirajganj, farmers of nine upazilas in the district are worried of getting poor yield of Boro crop due to blast attack during the harvesting season.
The fungal attack has spread all over the upazilas, according to sources at the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE).
Some 20,000 hectares of land have been affected by the fungal disease in the last three days. The worst affected areas are: Sadar, Raiganj, Chouhali, Ullapara, Belkuchi and Kamarkhand upazilas.
In an instant measure, the DAE authorities cancelled the leave of all employees and staffs in effected upazilas for bringing the situation under control as well as to protect the paddy field from the attack, said Arshed Ali, deputy director of DAE.
The DAE sources said the blast disease affected the paddy fields as farmers did not put fertiliser in a proper way. Besides, the hot temperature in daylight and fall of the same in night has pushed up the epidemic.
Due to the fungal infection, the plants became white in colour, Agriculturist Arshed Ali told the news agency.
He advised the farmers to spray medicines on the paddy field to protect the corps.
Some 0.14 million hectares of land in the area have been brought under Boro cultivation this year.