The farmers have, so far, produced around 5.56 lakh tonnes of Aush rice as its harvesting process is now on the final stage in all eight districts under Rajshahi division.

According to the sources of Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE), the farmers brought around 2.38 lakh hectares of land under the Aush paddy farming in the division this season.

The DAE had set a target of producing 6.49 lakh tonnes of rice from around 2.39 lakh hectares of land, said Dev Dulal Dhali, Additional Director of DAE, adding 39,200 farmers were given incentives of seed and fertilizer for the cultivation on 39,200 bigha of lands in the division.

Each of the farmers got 15-kg Di-ammonium Phosphate (DAP) fertilizers, 10-kg Muriate of Potash (MoP) and 5-kg of Aus seeds.

Most of the beneficiary farmers were given seed of BRRIdhan-48, a drought tolerant paddy variety innovated by Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) in the region. Meanwhile, the farmers are happy with satisfactory yield of the BRRIDhan-48 in the region, including its vast Barind tract, in the current season.

Amidst this glowing atmosphere the farmers have completed the paddy variety as part of their effort to mitigating the adverse impacts of climate change.

BRRIDhan-48, a short duration and drought tolerant paddy variety innovated by Bangladesh Rice Research Institute for Aush season, has gradually been gaining popularity among farmers in the Barind tract in the last couple of years.

Mojahar Hossain, a farmer of Mohanpur village under Godagari Upazila, got 20 mounds of paddy per bigha through cultivating the variety on five bighas of land this year. He could get hardly 10 mounds of paddy per bigha if he cultivated Parija, a conventional variety of the region.