Farmers and their family members have been busy weeding their croplands and carrying out other daily maintenance work in Nayapara, Kholabari and Chorashuri Haat under Chikajani Union of Dewanganj Upazila in Jamalpur. These lands have turned into green corn fields over the last few years -- thanks to high yield, low production cost and a steep rise in demand.
Farmers hope to harvest their crops in the next few weeks if they work hard.
The weather and soil on the Jamuna river banks also favour the cultivation of corn, which needs less irrigation and is not affected by pests significantly, say agriculturists. All these advantages have inspired the local Boro paddy farmers to turn to corn farming in the last decade.
Corn cultivation began on a trial basis in 2002-03 and commercially in 2013-14. Since then, the farmers have come by double the profit than that from paddy due to the availability of high-yielding hybrid corn seeds and government incentives in purchasing tractors.
During this period, demand for corn has also risen significantly since many local manufacturing units -- making bread, biscuits, flour, and poultry and cattle feed -- now tend to buy corn from Dewanganj.
According to the district Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) office, the production of corn has risen from five maunds per hectare to ten maunds. At the same time, the wholesale price of corn has increased to Tk1,100-1,150 per maund from Tk500-550.
This year, the government has set a target of corn cultivation on 5,300 hectares of land in eight unions of the upazila and has achieved success on 5,050 hectares so far.
The DAE officials say the poor farmers will be financially successful in corn cultivation and move forward.
Corn farmers Aminul Islam, Rabiul Alam, Bashir Sheikh and Samad Mia of Kholabari area said their profits had increased in the last several years due to the cultivation of hybrid varieties and high prices.
Chikajani Union Parishad Chairman Ashraful Islam said: “The paddy farmers of this area are now making good profits from corn cultivation. Their profitability increased further after they started growing hybrid corn.”
Upazila Agriculture Officer Alamgir Azad said: “I hope there will be a bumper production of corn in the eight unions this time. We always advise the farmers in this Jamuna River embankment and the flood-affected regions to grow high-yielding corn at low cost.”