Aman paddy harvesting begins

Harvesting of early variety (short duration) Aman paddy has begun in the district with much enthusiasm.

Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) officials said the early variety of the crop is now becoming ready for harvesting with the late variety Aman plants in full bloom predicting bumper production during the current season.

Deputy Director of DAE DAE, Narsingdi, Mohammad Saidur Rahman said farmers have already harvested 10 to 15 percent of Aman paddy in six upazilas of the district with the output ranging between 4 and 4.50 tonnes per hectare.

Farmers are getting good production of Aman this season as the crop has been growing excellent under the favorable climate conditions everywhere in the district.

DAE sources said farmers of the district have cultivated the paddy on 41,450 hectares of land including aromatic fine rice (Maloti shail,Kaliajira and Tulshimala) on 10,550 hectares in the current season against the total target of 40,800 hectares of land fixed by the department.

If there is no climate hazard in the current month, over one lakh tons of Aman rice will be produced in the district, the DD said.

He said BADC supplied quality seeds to the farmers at fair prices, and different commercial banks including Bangladesh Krishi Bank disbursed easy terms loans to the farmers. In addition DAE has been providing training among the farmers for adopting modern technologies in the paddy cultivation.