Our Correspondent
SYLHET, June 30: Farmers in Sylhet division have managed to achieve 96 per cent of the target, set for Aus paddy production this year.
Plantation of the crop is complete while the seedbed target of 8,828 hectares had been surpassed with 9,545 hectares of land, an official said.
The Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) sources said a total of 168,482 hectares of land have already brought under the production of Aus.
The area includes 59,192 hectares of land in Sylhet, 49,440 hectares in Moulvibazar, 46,720 hectares in Habiganj and 13,130 hectares of land in Sunamganj.
A programme was earlier taken up to bring 174,824 hectares of land in all the four districts under the crop farming as the total target of production was set at 440,807 tonnes of rice.
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 divisional office, said disbursement of the incentive among the listed farmers for Aus cultivation completed weeks ago.
The government sanctioned Tk 5,27,17,500 in assistance for the poor farmers in the division in a bid to help cultivate Aus.
Under the special incentive programme, 33,000 bighas of land are being 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, Tk 159,75000 for each of Sylhet, Moulvibazar and Habiganj districts while Tk 4792,500 is for Sunamganj.
For each bigha land a farmer was supplied 5.0 kg of seed, 20 kg of urea, 10 kg of DAP, 10 kg of MoP fertiliser, the source informed.
Besides, Tk 11641,115 had been spent in incentive for the marginal farmers in the three districts for cultivating Nerika paddy.
It includes, Tk 1887,750 for 900 farmers in Sylhet, Tk 2517,000 for 1,200 growers in Moulvibazar and Tk 7236,375 for 3,450 in Habiganj.
[email protected]
