A farmer has achieved great success in cultivating mustard in Sariakandi upazila of Bogra after learning modern techniques from YouTube, drawing widespread attention from other farmers in the area.
Samiul Islam, a farmer from Jorgacha village under Bhelabari union, has cultivated the high-yielding mustard variety BINA Sarisha-77 (Harina) for the first time in the upazila. Each plant has produced between 300 and 500 grams of seeds, making the initiative highly promising for local agriculture.
Samiul worked abroad for 13 years before returning home and turning to farming. After coming back, he began cultivating several high-value crops, including dragon fruit and grapes. Inspired by agricultural content on YouTube, he decided this year to cultivate the high-yield mustard variety on 26 decimals of land, marking the first such cultivation in Sariakandi.
Despite planting the crop later than the recommended period, the plants have grown 7 to 10 feet tall. Each plant has developed 15 to 20 branches, with clusters of mustard seeds forming on each branch. Samiul expects to harvest between 300 and 500 grams of mustard seeds per plant and plans to begin harvesting within the next three to four days.
The total production cost for the 26-decimal plot was around Tk 8,000, while he expects to sell the harvest for approximately Tk 40,000. In addition to mustard, Samiul also cultivates grapes and dragon fruit on the same land and has already made good profits from those crops.
Speaking about his experience, Samiul said he became interested in cultivating the high-yield variety after watching farming tutorials on YouTube. Normally, the crop is sown around mid-October, but his delayed planting slightly reduced the expected yield. Under ideal conditions, each plant can produce 500 grams to 1 kilogram of seeds, with yields reaching 12 to 15 maunds per bigha.
He said he expects to harvest about 10 maunds of mustard from his 26-decimal plot. Unlike traditional methods where seeds are scattered, this variety is usually planted in rows with two to two-and-a-half feet spacing between plants.
The oil yield of the variety is also higher. While conventional mustard typically produces about 15 liters of oil per maund, BINA Sarisha-77 can produce up to 19 liters per maund.
According to the Sariakandi Upazila Agriculture Office, the target for mustard cultivation this season was 3,750 hectares. However, cultivation and harvesting were completed on about 3,300 hectares, producing roughly 5,300 kilograms of mustard.
Farmers in the region usually grow mustard as a supplementary crop between the Aman and Boro rice seasons, utilizing land that would otherwise remain fallow.
Upazila Agriculture Officer Mohammad Ali Jinnah said many unemployed youths in the area are becoming successful agricultural entrepreneurs. “Samiul Islam is the first farmer in the upazila to cultivate the high-yielding BINA Sarisha-77 variety. We have already visited his field, and the yield looks very promising,” he said.
He added that while traditional mustard varieties typically yield five to six maunds per bigha, this improved variety can produce 12 to 15 maunds, raising hopes that its cultivation will expand widely across the upazila next year.