Satisfactory mustard-seed output expected in Rajshahi region

BSS,Rajshahi :The farmers and officials concerned are expecting a satisfactory production of mustard following various government steps and favourable climatic conditions in the region this Rabi season.According to the sources concerned, the cash crop is now growing well everywhere in the region including its vast Barind tract predicting bumper productions.Harvesting will begin next month and the farmers will bring most of the same land under Boro farming after completion of harvests of the crop, farmers and officials in the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) said here yesterday.The DAE has set a target of bringing around 1.80 lakh hectares of land in eight districts of the region during the current season but the farmers cultivated the crop on 1.82 lakh hectares of land.Besides the DAE, various other research and development organizations like BARI, BARC, BADC and many NGOs have taken adequate steps in collaboration with other departments this season to achieve the fixed production targets.Principal Scientific Officer of Regional Wheat Research Center Dr Ilias Hossain said BARI has released 16 high yielding mustard seeds and two of those- BARI Sharisha-15 and Tari-7 have become popular among the growers’ level.The agri-departments and NGOs have provided quality seeds, necessary inputs and trainings on the latest technologies to make the programme successful.The landless and marginal farmers have also brought vast tracts of the sandy char lands under mustard cultivation his time in the Ganges basins and the crops are growing excellent everywhere now in the region.Agriculturist Fazlur Rahman, Additional Director of DAE, said the region has immense prospects to achieve self- reliance in oil seed productions.In this regard, he underscored the need for using the latest agro-technologies and disseminating proper knowledge to the farmers for increasing mustard seed to achieve self- reliance in edible oil to reduce the dependence on import.He laid special emphasis on the need for increasing mustard, groundnuts, soybean and palm farming to move further forward in achieving the goals using the latest agro-technologies in the country’s food granary of the northern region.Farmers of the region always produce huge surplus quantities of rice, potato, maize, vegetables and they should explore tremendous potentialities to increase production of oil seeds through proper crop diversification and land management, they said.Agriculturist Rahman urged for cultivating hybrid varieties of oil seeds invented by BARI and BINA in between the gap of harvesting the short duration Aman paddies and Boro farming period to get the maximum productions and quality seeds.