Mustard growers eye huge profit this year in Madaripur, Chapainawabganj

UNB, Madaripur :
Madaripur mustard growers are passing very busy time in harvesting the crop as they have achieved bumper yield this year and are expecting huge profit :.
The farmers have been showing interest in mustard farming this year thanks to the higher price of edible oil in the market. Farmers have brought over 2000 hectares of land under mustard cultivation this year against the previous year.
According to the District Agriculture Extension department information, mustard is cultivated on 15,650 hectares of land in four upazilas of the district this year against 13,604 hectares of land in the previous year.
Merjon Khalasi, a mustard farmer of the district, said that mustard is being sold at the rate of Tk 3,300 to Tk 3,500 per maund (37.32 kg).
Generally, 12 to 13 maund mustard can be produced from one bigha of land costing Tk 8,000 to Tk 9,000, Merjon Khalasi added.
Md. Moazzem Hossain, Deputy Director of district Agriculture Department, said that four upazilas of Madaripur got bumper production this year. We hope farmers will earn good profit this year.
The government has a plan to produce 50 percent of the annual demand for edible oil in the country in the next three years, said Minister for Agriculture Dr Md Abdur Razzaque at a programme in Gazipur ecently.
The minister said the mustard farmers are getting benefited financially by cultivating such hybrid varieties of mustard redesigned by the country’s agriculturalists.
The Agricultural Ministry has taken a massive initiative to boost up the mustard production, he said.
BSS from Chapainawabganj adds: The production of mustard is likely to cross target in the district during the current season.
According to the district office of the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE), the target of cultivating mustard was fixed up at 17,800 hectares of land in the district with the production target of 26,700 tonnes.
Upazila wise break-up of land and production target is as follows- 5,320 hectare of land in Chapainawabganj sadar upazila with a production target of 7,980tonnes, 3,540 hectares in Shibganj upazila to produce 5,310 tonnes, 2,580 hectares in Gomostapur upazila to produce 3,870 tonnes, 5,395 hectares in Nachole upazila to produce 8,092 tonnes and 965 hectares in Bholahat upazila to produce 1,448 tonnes of mustard.
General Secretary of Chapainawabganj Agriculture Association Md Munjer Alam said the farmers are harvesting 3 to 5 maunds of Tori 7 variety of mustard per bigha in the Barind areas this year. On the other hand, farmers are getting 5 to 9 maunds of mustard of BARI 14, 17 and 18 varieties in the beel and char lands in the district, he added.
Deputy Director (DD) of the district DAE office Dr Palash Sarkar said, cultivation of mustard requires less cost, less irrigation and it keeps lands well. Not only that, farmers are now being more benefitted by cultivating mustard as they are getting good price, he added.