Despite flood Govt expects good production of T-Aman

As of yesterday, we have reached by 95% of our targeted coverage in T-Aman plantation across the country and by the next week the T-Amam seeding will be finished, said MD Hamidur Rahman, director general of Department of Agriculture Extension to the Dhaka Tribune. This year, the government has set its target to coverage 52,61300 hectares of agricultural land for Aman production, while the last year’s achievement was 52, 13160 hectares. If major natural calamities will not hit in the upcoming days, we will get a very good number of rice production, he added. Regarding the latest flood in vast areas of Ganges basin in Bangladesh, the DG said that, “The farmers are used to face such kind of flood and they also prepared themselves thereby”. Citing an example, he said that “The farmers of Northern districts have already seeded their T-Aman field two weeks ago, while the farmers adjacent to large rivers like Padma and Meghna are about to finish their seeding within next week. This mechanism that they have adopted with their long time experience, he added. According to the DAE, the latest flood which stayed for a short time has not affected more, though it damaged some Aman seedlings and spices crops like green chilies and vegetable. Regarding this, DG, DAE told the Dhaka Tribune that, “The damages which the farmers experienced in this years’ monsoonal floods including the latest one, have already recovered by the government’s regular programs.” Besides this, the sediment which has been carried by the floods will help to get the best production in upcoming Aman and other winter crops like wheat and Maze, he added. Bangladesh produces around 34.7 million tons of rice against the demand of annual 32.4 million tons. Boro is the largest paddy in terms of production as Bangladesh usually produces around 19.5 million tons while the second largest paddy- Aman production is around 13 million tons annually.