Revised Aman production target may be achieved

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S M Jahangir
The country's farmers have made it possible again. After the record 17.5 million tonnes of "Boro' harvest in the last season, the farmers are about to reach another milestone in harvesting Aman rice this year.
According to the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) assessment, the country is set to hit the revised target of 13 million tonnes of Aman rice this season.
"Harvest of Aman crop is in the final stage. The countrywide yield of the harvested crop gives a clear indication of reaching the revised Aman production target," said a senior agriculture ministry official.
The DAE initially set the Aman output target at 13.70 million tonnes for the current season, but later the target was trimmed down to 13 million tonnes following floods that affected planted aman crops in different areas.
According to a DAE's assessment, the flash floods damaged Aman on nearly 166,000 hectares of land in 20 districts of the country's northern and central regions.
Even after the flood and pest attacks in some areas, the per acreage output of Aman is satisfactory, said the official, referring to the DAE's field-level reports.
Agriculture officials see this year's Aman production as a major breakthrough in the country's history of rice cultivation.
"The expected robust harvest of Aman crop is one-step forward toward the achievement of the domestic foodgrain production for the current fiscal year," said an official.
Besides, it will also help the country reduce its overall foodgrain shortfall to a greater extent, the official added.
The government has fixed the country's total foodgrain production target at 34 million tonnes for fiscal 2008-09, which also includes 18 million tonnes of Boro, 2.2 million tonnes of Aus and 0.8 million tonnes of wheat, officials said.
According to them, the harvest of a robust crop has helped the Aman growers recoup their losses that they sustained in last year because of two successive flooding and November 15 cyclone 'Sidr'.
Due to the natural calamities the country's Aman output drastically fell to 9.7 million tonnes last year against the target of 13 million tonnes, sources said.
Such a large shortfall in the Aman output also created an adverse impact on local market, pushing the prices of rice abnormally up, they mentioned, adding that soaring rice prices in the global market was also responsible for the hike.
Considering the overall situation, both the farmers and government made extra efforts to boost the Aman production.
To achieve the goal, Aman growers across the country switched over from traditional verities to High-yielding variety (HYV) of crops this season, a senior agriculture official told the FE.
This year, more than 75 per cent of the total Aman land had come under the cultivation of HYV crops, which helped the farmers raise the per hectare rice production to 2.3 tonnes from a nearly 2.0 tonnes previously.