The farmers witnessed an all-time record output of about 1.48-lakh tonnes of clean Aush rice (2.22-lakh tonnes of paddy) this season against 1.23-lakh tonnes of the same produced last year in Rangpur agriculture region.

Officials of the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) said farmers produced 1.23-lakh tonnes of Aush rice from 40,618 hectares of land against the fixed production target of 68,969 tonnes from 26,159 heaters of land.

Despite causing production loss of 28,665 tonnes of Aush rice worth Taka 59.30 crore on 7,754 hectares of land by recent flood, farmers produced 1.48- lakh tonnes of the rice this season, higher by over 25,000 tonnes of clean Aush rice than last season in the region. Earlier, the DAE had fixed a farming target of Aush rice on 54,775 heaters of land to produce 1.54-lakh tonnes of clean rice (2.34-lakh tonnes of paddy) in all five districts of the region this year. “The record Aush rice output was achieved following various effective steps taken by the government despite losses caused by recent to the crop in the region,” Deputy Director at the DAE’s regional office Agriculturist Md Moniruzzaman told BSS yesterday. The farmers are happy getting bumper Aush rice output and excellent market price between Taka 750 and 800 per mound of paddy (40-kg) of the newly harvested crop in the region.

The special programmes and initiatives of the government included distribution of special intensives for expanding cultivation of Aush rice, providing training to farmers on latest farming technologies, technical support and motivational campaigns,” he said.

Under the programmes, the government distributed special incentives in terms of Aush rice seed and fertilisers worth Taka 5.75 crore among 34,029 small and marginal farmers of all five districts in Rangpur agriculture region this season.