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The country may see a bumper production in the current Aman season that will add a large quantity of the staple grain to the national food basket.
Aman harvest has already begun across the country. Its production has been projected to increase 13 lakh tonnes more than the previous year’s.
The total paddy production may hit 1.63 crore tonnes this year, said Badal Chandra Biswas, additional director (Monitoring and Implementation) of the Field Service Wing at the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE).
“The peak harvest time of Aman paddy is going on across the country,” he said, adding that farmers are witnessing less sterile grain (chita) this year which will increase a good deal of the paddy production.
The country’s southern region has also witnessed good production despite cyclone Sitrang hit in the region, he said.
Aman paddy is the second-highest cereal crop produced in Bangladesh after Boro paddy. It is grown in the country during the rainy season.
The country’s 37 percent of rice production has come from Aman while the rest 63 per cent are from Boro and Aush paddies.
The increases in rice prices in the country forced the government to import a large quantity of the staple food grain to stabilise the rice market.
The government wants to produce additional rice by increasing the acreage under cultivation and increasing the cultivation of high yielding paddy to decrease the import dependency, said officials of the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE).
Farmers are now busy harvesting paddy as the peak harvest time is going on across the country.
More than 3.64 percent of Aman paddy has been harvested till November 3 and the average yield was 3.194 tonnes per hectare, according the DAE.
The production of Aman paddy was 1.50 crore tonnes from 59.05 lakh hectares of land in the 2021-22 Fiscal Year.
The DAE has projected to produce 1.63 crore tonnes of paddy from 59.06 lakh hectares of land in FY 2022-23, but the acreage of Aman paddy has increased to 59.233 lakh hectares.
The government has provided farmers with hybrid seeds to produce more rice.
The total hybrid acreage has increased to 3.467 lakh hectares in the current season while it was 2.971 lakh hectares in the previous year.
Aman paddy is planted in July and August and harvested in November and December. It is fully rain-fed and covers the highest acreage.
Suruj Molla, a farmer from Kushtia, said, “I am expecting bumper production of Aman paddy this year as my paddy field is yet to be affected by any diseases and natural calamity.”
“I’ve cultivated Aman on 2 bighas of land this season and its harvest will start in a couple of weeks,” he said.
(DS)
