Farm labourers earn well from early Aman harvest

Many farm labourers are earning well from an early harvest of short-duration Aman rice to lead a better life during the seasonal lean period of Bangla months- Aswin and Kartik in Rangpur agriculture region.

Despite the global crises caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia-Ukraine War, the short-duration Aman rice harvest is helping small and marginal farmers and farm labourers in tackling the ‘lean period’ like in the previous years.

Officials of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) said the early harvest of short-duration Aman rice began two weeks ago and will continue till November next during the whole ‘lean period’ that has already disappeared 13 years ago.

“Early harvest of short duration Aman rice and followed by the cultivation of early winter crops on the same land are creating jobs for farm-labourers during the ‘lean periods’ since 2010,” said Additional Director of the DAE for Rangpur region Mohammad Shah Alam.

The DAE has fixed a target of producing 18,07,916 tonnes of clean Aman rice (27,11,874 tonnes of paddy) from 6,15,685 hectares of land for all five districts of the region this season.

Farmers have cultivated Aman rice on 6,15,981 hectares of land exceeding the fixed farming target by 296 hectares of land.

Of them, short-duration varieties of Aman rice have been cultivated on over 62,000 hectares of land across the region this season.

Till Friday, farmers harvested short-duration Aman rice on about 10,000 hectares of land and got an excellent average yield rate of 2.70 tonnes of clean Aman rice (4.05 tonnes of paddy) per hectare of land.

Independence Award 2018 Medal (food security) winner Dr Md Abdul Mazid said the government started expanding cultivation of short-duration Aman rice in 2009 to create jobs for farm labourers through early harvest during the ‘lean period’.

Previously, an extreme poverty-like situation, locally called ‘monga’, was being created for lack of agricultural activities during the months of ‘Aswin’ and ‘Kartik’ causing untold miseries to the poor and farm labourers even 14 years ago.

Large-scale cultivation of short-duration Aman rice has successfully eliminated ‘monga’, a disappearing seasonal poverty-like situation during the ‘lean periods’ of ‘Aswin’ and ‘Kartik’ months, from the region.

“Early harvest of short duration Aman rice followed by the cultivation of subsequent winter crops on the same land till November creates huge jobs for farm-labourers during the ‘lean periods’ since 2010 relieving them from poverty,” he said.

Local farmers said they have mostly cultivated short-duration rice varieties like BRRI dhan75, BRRI dhan71, BINA dhan17, BINA dhan16 and hybrid Hira-2, Hira-10 and Dhani Gold varieties of rice on croplands this season.

Farmers Azizar Rahman and Narayan Chandra Sen of village Bhimpur in Taraganj upazila of Rangpur said they have already harvested short-duration varieties of BINA dhan17 rice and got excellent yields.

“After harvesting BINA dhan17 rice, I have already cultivated winter vegetables on the same land with a hope to earn better profits from its early harvest,” said farmer Rabindra Nath of nearby village Bachhurbandha.

Farmer Ayub Ali of village Agachhatra in Pirganj upazila of Rangpur said he has cultivated a hybrid Dhani Gold variety of rice on about five acres of land.

After harvesting, he is currently getting yield rates between 18 to 20 mounds yield rate of hybrid Dhani Gold variety of paddy per bigha of land.

Farmers are currently selling newly harvested paddy at rates between Tk 1,000 and Tk 1,050 per mound and raw paddy straws produced from one bigha (33 decimals) of land at Tk 5,000 and Tk 6,000 and reaping more profits.