Naogaon peasants busy farming early variety potato

NAOGAON, Nov 18: Farmers in the district are passing busy time cultivating early variety of potato in the field during the ongoing Rabi season.
Farmers are showing more interest in cultivating potato early this season as it was proved profitable in the last few years.
Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) sources said, "A target has been set to bring about a total of 23,100 hectares of land under potato cultivation in all eleven upazilas of the district this year.'' "Farmers have already cultivated potato on some 1,755 hectares of land to date while 1,050 hectares are of early variety,'' the sources added.
One Joynal Hossain of Kirtipur village under Naogaon sadar upazila said he cultivated early variety of potato on one acre of land about 45 days ago.
"I am expecting to harvest the potato within 20 to 25 days," he added.
Grower Amzad Ali of Hapania village of the same upazila said, "Usually, the production of early variety is less than that of the regular season's production. If the climatic condition remains favourable during the cultivation period, we can expect about 20 to 22 maunds of potatoes per bigha of land this season.'' Shamsul Wadud, deputy director of Naogaon DAE, said, "Farmers are getting more benefited from early variety of potato cultivation as the price of the produce remains higher during this period.''
"Therefore, the number of peasants cultivating the early potato variety is rising each year,'' he added.

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