Bumper Boro harvest expected this season

The Agriculture Ministry predicts the country’s Boro rice production will be a little bit higher in the outgoing season compared to the last.

According to the ministry’s data, some 2,11,57,221 tonnes of Boro rice will be harvested this season — which is 2,05,919 tonnes higher than this season’s target and 2,71,958 tonnes higher than last year’s total production of 2,08,85,263 tonnes.

The government had aimed to cultivate Boro on over 48.72 lakh hectares of land in this season but farmers managed to use more than 49.63 lakh hectares.

Of those, Boro has been harvested from over 45.66 lakh hectares of land so far, which is 94.44 per cent of the total.

Heavy rain, storm and water from the hills had damaged the rice on 19,922 hectares of land — which could have produced 79,629 tonnes — across the country, according to the ministry.

Officials of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) said production increased this year and will continue to do so in future owing to scientific advancement, farmers choice in variety seeds and monitoring and facilitation by DAE field officers.

“Cultivation of hybrid seeds is increasing gradually and we are reaching more farmers with many high yielding varieties. Rice production will continue to increase as we are bringing more farmers into the fold for using rich varieties every year,” DAE Field Service

Wing Director (Routine Charge) Habibur Rahaman Chowdhury told The Business Post.

This season, farmers cultivated several hybrid varieties of Boro on 13.31 lakh hectares of land. It was 9.92 lakh hectares in the last season.

Meanwhile, use of high yielding varieties (HYV) reduced a little bit in this season. Farmers cultivated HYV on 37.62 lakh hectares, which was 36.10 lakh hectares last season.

This season, farmers cultivated local varieties on 21,200 hectares of land. It was 31,300 hectares in the previous season.

According to the DAE, hybrid varieties generally lead to 4.66 tonnes production per hectare, 4.04 tonnes per hectare for HYV and 1.78 tonnes per hectare for local varieties.