Agriculture Minister and Awami League Presidium Member Dr Md Abdur Razzaque said that in the current fiscal year 2022-23, boro paddy has been cultivated in about five million hectares of land across Bangladesh.
He said this during the paddy cutting festival and exchange of views with farmers in Shantiganj upazila of Sunamganj on Wednesday, according to a press release.
Courtesy The minister said: “Boro will have record production. Its harvesting is going on in Haor and so far, 35% of the paddy has been harvested. Hopefully, by April 30, all the paddy will be harvested. This time there will be no problem in paddy harvesting.”
Highlighting the various steps taken by the government to make paddy harvesting in Haor region safer from floods and landslides, he said that they are working on ensuring that within two-three years, paddy harvesting would be safer and risk-free.
He added: “We are providing harvesters of Haor with 70% subsidy for quick harvesting of ripe paddy. We are reaping the benefits. Paddy has been harvested rapidly for the past few years. As a result, the apprehension over Haor paddy has decreased a lot.”
The minister said: “Besides, we are giving importance to the cultivation of short-lived and cold-tolerant early varieties of rice so that the paddy ripens 15 days earlier. Scientists have already developed many varieties. If these varieties can be expanded quickly, there will be no fear.”
The minister urged the farmers not to cultivate BRRI 28 and BRRI 29 varieties of paddy. He said that the BRRI 28 variety has become old, is easily affected by various diseases including blast, and its productivity has also decreased. BRRI 29 ripens a bit late. Instead of these varieties, high productive new varieties such as BRRI-81, BRRI-89, BRRI-92 should be cultivated. Their yield is more than one seed per century.
Courtesy According to the Department of Agricultural Extension, boro has been planted on 5 million hectares of land this year, and the production target is 21.5 million metric tons of rice.
In the last fiscal year 2021-22, boro paddy was cultivated on 48,14,000 hectares of land, producing about 22 million tons of rice.
Meanwhile, harvesting of boro paddy has started in seven districts – Sylhet, Moulvibazar, Habiganj, Sunamganj, Kishoreganj, Netrakona and Brahmanbaria. So far 35% of Haor's paddy has been harvested.
This year, boro has been cultivated in 4,52,000 hectares of land. In these seven districts the total boro plantation (low and upland combined) is 9,53,000 hectares of land while the production target is 4 million tons of rice.
This year an incentive of Tk170 crore was given to increase the cultivation and production of boro. About 2.7 million farmers across the country have received free seeds and fertilizers under this incentive.