Farmers expecting bumper off-season mugbean

RANGPUR, May 19 (BSS): The farmers are expecting bumper production of the off-season mugbean as an additional cash crop as its harvest continues in full swing in Rangpur division, officials and experts said today. The farmers are happy getting excellent price of the newly harvested mugbean and processed clean and nutritious pulse is being sold at Tk 140 per kg on an average in the local markets. After achieving tremendous success in recent years, RDRS Bangladesh with the assistances of Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute (BARI) and DAE helped 3,500 farmers in cultivating the pulse in 3,500 bighas land this season in Rangpur division. Head of Agriculture and Environment of the NGO Dr Mg Neogi said the farmers sowed seeds after potato harvests to harvest mugbean within 60 days by May 31 to cultivate short duration Aman paddy in the same land by JuneJuly under Aman-Potato- Mugbean- Aman cropping pattern. The farmers achieved repeated successes in farming the off season mugbean to combat poverty and revive lost soil health during the past few consecutive years that encouraged them further for its expanded farming, he said. Director (Resource and Environment) of the NGO Dr Syed Samsuzzaman said that the off- season mugbean could be cultivated in huge scale as an additional crop and its massive farming could largely meet the country's pulse demand. "The farmers get average yield of 500 kg processed and clean mugbean per acre to earn a net profit of Tk 65,000 excluding per acre farming cost of Tk 10,000," Programme Manager (Climate Change Project) KM Marufuzzman of the NGO said.