Wheat cultivation here has recently become popular among the local farmers, encouraging them more to cultivate the crop on vast tracks of land.
Sources at department of agriculture extension (DAE) of Faridpur said congenial weather and availability of heat resistant wheat seed played a great role.
The DAE’s statistics states that wheat has been cultivated on 33,530 hectare of land, in which about 3.4 tonnes of production on each hectare is projected.
Last year, wheat cultivation occurred on 31,510 hectares of land whereas per hectare production was 3.22 tonne.
The statistics also showed that 20,310 hectares of land were used for wheat cultivation in 2006-2007 FY. On the other hand, it was just 12,904 hectares in 1999-2000.
Moreover at that time production was less than 2 tonne per hectare due to not having high yielding variety of wheat seed.
Shanker Chandra Bhowmik deputy director of DAE Faridpur told the Dhaka Tribune that farmers got interested in wheat farming due to high market demand.
Recently, they have introduced new heat resistant varieties of wheat seed named Bina 25/26/27, Shawrab, Gowrob and Shatabdi that contributed to the production rate hike.
Sorwar Hossain, a farmer of Shawtikanda village in Bhanga upazila, said he increased wheat cultivation manifold last couple of years because of good production brought about by favourable climate and availability of quality seeds.