High-yielding wheat varieties make Rajshahi farmers happy

The cultivation of high-yielding wheat varieties especially BARI GOM-30, BARI GOM-32 and BARI GOM-33 brought smiles on farmers’ face in Rajshahi as they have been producing its bumper yield in the region, including its vast Barind tract, for the last few years.

Many farmers cultivated three improved varieties BARI GOM-30, BARI GOM-32 and BARI GOM-33 -- and got around 18 maunds yield per bigha on an average, sources said.

The production cost of the improved wheat varieties is also less as the varieties are disease and drought tolerant, they also said.

Abdul Momin of Pakuria village in Bagha Upazila said he had cultivated Bari gom-33 wheat on 12 bighas of land and got yield 17 maunds per bigha this season.

Shahabul Islam of Monigram village also harvested 18 maunds per bigha after cultivating it on four bigha in the current season.

In the previous year, Enamul Haque, an ideal farmer of Chandipur village under the same upazila, had cultivated the same variety and yielded 18 maunds per bigha.

He sold his produced wheat to the agriculture office and other farmers as seed.

He also cultivated the same variety, getting bumper yield this year saying there was no disease attack to the new varieties resulting in satisfactory yield.

Upazila Agriculture Officer Shafiullah Sultan said farmers fetched income worth around Taka 10.36 crore after cultivating the new varieties in the upazila, vibrating the local economy.

He mentioned that the wheat was cultivated on 6,010 hectares, including the three varieties on 4,207 hectares, in the upazila this year. Of them, the yield of Bari gom-33 is almost high, he said.

Agriculturist Sultan attributed that they will bring all the lands under the new varieties within the next couple of years to boost the wheat production in the upazila.

Dr Ilias Hossain, Principal Scientific Officer of Bangladesh Wheat and Maize Research Institute, told BSS that they are promoting some high yielding, heat and drought tolerant and blast disease resistant varieties like Barigom 28, 29, 30 and 33 among the farmers.