Aman farmers in Rajshahi were happy after pulling in a good yield coupled with fair price this season, everywhere in the region.
According to reports from different areas in the district, farmers were busy harvesting in the final stages.
Currently, a maund (37.33kg) of Aman paddy was being sold for Tk640 to Tk710 at different markets in the district while the production cost of each maund was Tk420 to Tk450, farmers said.
During the initial stages of the farming season, farmers were frustrated due to dry conditions. Though some of them, having requisite irrigation facilities started transplanting seedlings with irrigation, all the farmers could do same, thanks to frequent rainfall later in the season.
Agriculturists said growers sowed high quality Aman seeds like BINA-7, BR-49 and local early variety Basmati paddy while the DAE officials provided farmers with training and necessary instructions to bring in better yields.
Nurul Amin, deputy director of Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE), said Aman was cultivated on 70,360 hectares against the target of 68,513 hectares in nine upazilas of the district this year.
Farmers got at least 2.93 tonnes of the crop from each hectare this year against the target of 2.66 tonnes fixed by the DAE, he said.
This season the farmers were getting a fair price for their crop, which is now being sold between Tk700 to Tk750 per mound, said Jakir Hossain, a farmer of Chowbaria in Pabaupazila.
“Good Aman harvest was expected this season in the district as weather condition remained favourable, prices of fertiliser and other inputs were relatively low while pest attacks did not affect the crop,” he said.
“I have harvested 18 to 20 maunds of HYV of aman crop per bigha of land, as weather flood was almost favourable this year,” said Abdur Rahim, a model farmer from Bargachhi in Pabaupazila.
Nabibur Rahman, 43, a farmer from Kachua in Tanore Upazila, said, “I cultivated high yielding flood tolerant Aman paddy on 68 decimal of land this year and got 25kg of paddy from each decimal. It was only 18 kg last year.”
“I received seed and technical support from the regional office of Bangladesh Rice Research Institute to cultivate the variety. I will cultivate it on more land next season,” he said.
“I cultivated Aman on four acres (1.61 hectares) of land spending Tk7,000-8,000 per acre and got 35-36 maunds of paddy from each acre. The new paddy was selling at Tk750 per maund and I hope to get a profit of Tk30,000-32,000,” said Jahangir Alam, a farmer from Kaligonj in Manda upazila.
Saleh Ahmed, Upazila Agriculture Officer of Paba said favourable weather conditions including timely rain aided in a bumper Aman yield this season and its price was good as well.
“Now the farmers are applying scientific methods for cultivation. They do not use excessive fertiliser and insecticides on their croplands,” he said.