Rajshahi farmers happy over bumper production of Aman paddy

RAJSHAHI, Nov 10: Despite a bumper production of Aman paddy in Rajshahi, farmers of the region are hopeful of getting a satisfactory price of their crop because of a high market price of paddy.
There was sufficient rainfall this year in the district ensuring a good harvest of paddy. Though there was infestation of current pests in some fields, the overall production is highly encouraging, informed officials of Agriculture Extension in Rajshahi.
Most of the paddy has already been reaped and farmers are now busy threshing those. An early variety of Aman paddy is planted in the district because most of the lands used after harvesting of paddy for the cultivation of winter vegetables like potato, tomato, pepper or wheat.
Ashraf Ali of Dhaminpara village under Mohanpur upazila informed, most farmers of the village have already reaped their paddy because to clear the field for potato cultivation.
Hakim of Bagsara village under Paba upazila informed the production cost of Aman paddy this year was less than that of last year because there was no need for irrigation this year.
Gold Medalist farmer, Rahim Uddin informed, if the price of paddy remained higher this year, farmers of the region will again become interested to cultivate paddy in their fields.
Pradip Kumar Dey, General Manager of Rajshahi Palli Biddyuh Samity said there was no need for irrigation for the Aman paddy this year because there was sufficient rainfall. He however, informed, there was no shortage of electricity to operate deep tubewells of the region for the next cropping season.
Abul Kalam Azad, Deputy Director of Department of Agriculture Extension, Rajshahi said due to impact of climate change, the sequence of rainfall has been changed now a days. However, this year the rainfall was adequate in due time and farmers were happy to cultivate and harvest their paddy without irrigation.
He further said, the target of cultivation of paddy in Rajshahi region was fixed at 74,250 hectares in nine upazilas of the district but the cultivation surpassed more than 6,000 hectares which was 4,000 hectares more than last year's target. The production of paddy has also been surpassed the target and due to a satisfactory market price, the farmers are also expecting a good profit, mentioned Abul Kalam Azad.              

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