70% Boro paddy in haor areas harvested

Seventy per cent of the Boro paddy in haor areas has been harvested, the agriculture ministry said on Monday.

In Sylhet, 55 per cent of paddy was harvested, in Moulvibazar 70 per cent was harvested, in Habiganj 67 per cent, in Sunamganj 73 per cent, in Kishoreganj 58 per cent, in Netrokona 77 per cent, and in Brahmanbaria 67 per cent of Boro paddy was harvested, read a press release.

Boro paddy was sown on 452,000 hectares of land in haor areas of seven districts this year.

And a total of 953,000 hectares of land has been cultivated in the highland outside of the haors. The production target is 40 lakh tonnes of rice, read the release.

Recently, Agriculture Minister Abdur Razzaque launched the Boro paddy harvest in haor areas of Sunamganj ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr.  At the time, he said if there was no natural disaster and rice can be brought home on time, there will be a record production in Boro this year.

Only in Sunamganj, around 1,000 combined paddy harvesters are working, he said, adding that there will be no problem in harvesting paddy this time.

According to the Department of Agricultural Extension, Boro has been sown on 50 lakh hectares of land across the country this year, while the production target is 21.5 million tonnes of rice.

In the last fiscal year 2021-22, Boro rice was sown on 48,14,000 hectares of land, and about 20.2 million tonnes of rice were produced, the release added.