Rajshahi farmers get over Tk8cr as incentives

Around 2.51 lakh small and marginal farmers are getting fertilisers and seeds worth about Tk 8.30 crore free of cost during the current rabi season under government agriculture incentive programme in Rajshahi division.

Additional Director of Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) Shamsul Wadud here told BSS that incentives are being given to the farmers in all eight districts in the division like other parts of the country.

“We are very much hopeful about completing distribution of the rabi crop seed and fertilizers within this month,” he said, adding that the incentives will help the farmers grow the seasonal crops successfully.

Shamsul Wadud said each of the beneficiary farmers are getting agri inputs for cultivating crops like winter vegetables, wheat, maize, mustard, sunflower, groundnut, winter onion, mung-bean, lentil and grass pea on one bigha of land each.

In the division, a total of 5,900 farmers are getting incentives for winter vegetable farming, 68,000 farmers for wheat, 22,050 for maize, 2.07 lakh for mustard, 3,840 for onion, 4,000 for mung-bean, 6,350 for lentil, 1,000 for sunflower, 11,300 for grass pea and 2,000 for groundnut, reports BSS.

To mitigate pressure on water, the marginal farmers are being given seeds of various less-water consuming crops like wheat, maize, lentil, grass pea and mustard seed, Wadud said.

The incentive programme will contribute a lot to promoting the water-saving crops in the drought-prone Barind area, he said.

More than 1,500 volunteers are motivating farmers to cultivate less water consuming crops through water resource management on behalf of the ‘Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM)’ Project.

DASCOH Foundation has been implementing the IWRM project in 1,280 drought-hit villages of 39 Union Parishad and three municipalities in eight upazilas of Rajshahi, Naogaon and Chapainawabganj districts supported by Switzerland since 2015, said Jahangir Khan, Project Coordinator of IWRM.

Rafiqul Islam, a marginalized farmer of Fulbari village under Godagari upazila, said he is very happy after getting the incentives in proper time.

“I have sown wheat seed on one bigha of land timely after getting the seed and fertilizer incentives,” Islam said, adding that the time prior to 30th November is considered as appropriate period for sowing wheat seed.

Shakhawat Hossain, another farmer of Bijoynagar area under the same upazila, said he has sown onion seed after availing the incentives which has saved him from leaving behind his land abandoned.

Pearul Islam of Bhagail village said many of the farmers have been benefited from the incentives this season as those were distributed in proper time.