Farmers across the 13 upazilas of Dinajpur have started harvesting and threshing Boro paddy in full swing, with agricultural officials expecting a bumper production this season.
Deputy Director of the District Agriculture Department, Md Afzal Hossain, said harvesting began intensively from last week as early varieties of paddy ripened in the fields. Farmers are now passing busy days cutting and processing the crop.
He said around 1,500 modern paddy harvesting machines have been distributed among farmers in the district over the past two years at a 50% subsidy. Each machine can harvest and thresh nearly 50 acres of land a day, reducing dependence on manual labor during the peak harvesting period.
Agricultural workers are also actively involved in cutting, transporting, and threshing paddy. With modern technology, farmers can now harvest, thresh, and bag paddy simultaneously in the fields, helping them complete the work quickly and at lower cost.
Farmers expressed satisfaction over the availability of modern harvesting equipment, saying it has made the harvesting process easier and more efficient. The paddy fields across Dinajpur are now bustling with harvesting activities, creating a festive atmosphere in the district known as one of the country’s major rice-producing regions.
Favorable weather has further helped farmers dry straw in the fields after threshing. The straw, widely used as cattle feed, is currently in high demand, enabling many farmers to earn additional income by selling the surplus after meeting household needs.
Officials said nearly 15% of the paddy has already been harvested, while about half of the crop has ripened in the fields. The Agriculture Department has advised farmers to complete harvesting quickly to avoid possible losses from natural disasters. Field-level agricultural workers are assisting farmers and encouraging them to finish harvesting by May.
Md Mostafizur Rahman, Deputy Director (Training and Crops) of the Dinajpur Agricultural Extension Department, said the cultivation target for the current season was set at 172,250 hectares of land across the district. However, farmers exceeded the target by cultivating an additional 2,450 hectares, bringing the total cultivated area to 174,700 hectares.
The district’s rice production target has been fixed at around 830,000 tons , and officials expect the final output to surpass the target this year.
