Boro harvest begins in Gaibandha

GAIBANDHA, May 2 (BSS): Harvest of Boro paddy has begun in all the seven upazilas in the district during the current season with much enthusiasm among the farmers.

Official sources said the department of agriculture extension (DAE) set a target to farm Boro paddy on 1,24,179 hectares of land this year with the production target of 5,01,039 tonnes of rice.

Later, the target fixed by the department exceeded and more 2,453 hectares of land were brought under the Boro farming, source said.

Farmers of the district are expecting a bumper production of Boro paddy this year as they are getting at least 22-24 maunds of paddy from a bigha of land.

Favorable weather, proper distribution of high quality seed of BADC and timely supply of electricity, fertilizers and other agri inputs to the growers are the main reasons behind the expectation, said the growers.

To make the cultivation programme a grand success and to bring all arable land under this programme, the commercial banks including Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank also disbursed soft loan to the poor and the marginal farmers during the season.

While visiting some areas of the district the correspondent found that harvest of early varieties of Boro paddy particularly BIRI-28 started amid much enthusiasm.

The growers and their family members became so much busy in cutting the paddy in the field and sorting and converting it into rice in their house-yards.

Talking to the BSS DAE deputy director of DAE M. Aminul Islam said 10 per cent of Boro paddy had already been harvested till May 1 and the full harvest of Boro paddy would start at the second week of the month.