Sesame farming prospects bright in Barind land

RAJSHAHI, June 7 (BSS): Prospect of large-scale sesame farming on the fallow lands in the vast barind tract is very bright and that can be the effective means of mitigating the existing drought condition alongside the adverse impact of climate change in the dried area, agricultural scientists and extension officials here said.
They viewed more than 0.1 million (one lakh) hectares of land remain fallow after harvesting transplanted aman paddy in the high barind tract comprising 10 upazilas of Rajshahi, Chapainawabgonj and Naogaon districts every year.
There is an enormous prospect of producing at least one lakh tonnes of sesame valued at around Tk 3 billion (300 crore) from the fallow lands yearly through utilizing modern farming methods like raised bed and high yielding variety. Thereby, the country's demand of edible oil could be fulfilled to some extent.
Meanwhile, farmers and agriculture officials in the region are expecting a bumper yield of sesame this season. The pollination was well due to favorable weather condition and the plants are still unaffected by pest attacks or natural calamities, said Hazrat Ali, Deputy Director of Department of Agriculture Extension. Most of the plants have already passed the pod formation stage, he added.
A good number of honey farmers set wooden hives alongside the oilseed fields, and it helped better pollination.
The farmers are showing interest to cultivate the crop on more areas of lands after getting its bumper yield and good prices in recent years, DAE officials said.
It requires lower production cost in terms of irrigation, fertiliser and labour compared to other Rabi crops, and less fertile lands, where other crops do not usually grow well, can be used for sesame cultivation, they said.
Usually farmers in the district grow local variety T-6 sesame. Bari Til-3, Bari Til-4 and Bina Til are also being cultivated in some areas as the DAE authorities are campaigning for cultivating high yielding sesame varieties invented by Bari between the gaps of potato and aman. Sesame requires 70-80 days for attaining maturity and mid-February to mid-April is the optimum period for its cultivation.
Shah Jahan Ali (45), a farmer of Premtali village in Godagari upazila, said he cultivated sesame on one bigha (0.3306 acre) of land last year spending Tk 700 and got four maunds (one maund = 37.32 kg) of yield.
"That time I made a profit of Tk 6,500. This season I cultivated sesame on two bighas of land," he said.
Cultivation of sesame, requiring moderate irrigation only once, is easier and less costly than other crops but brings good profit, said Aminul Islam, 55, a sharecropper of Kakonhat village under the same upazila.