The tender wheat plants are growing excellent amid favourable weather predicting better production despite a little shortfall in the fixed farming target in Rangpur agriculture region this season.

Officials of Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) said farmers have finally cultivated wheat on 18,810 hectares of land, 3,324 hectares or 13.07 percent less than the fixed target on 22,050 hectares of land in the region.

The DAE has fixed a target of producing 71,736 tonnes of wheat in all five districts Rangpur, Gaibandha, Kurigram, Lalmonirhat and Nilphamari during this current Rabi season.

Deputy Director of DAE at its regional office Agriculturist Md. Moniruzzaman said the fixed wheat farming target could not be achieved following crop diversification and farming of maize on more lands in the region like in the previous couple of years The farmers have cultivated wheat on 18,726 hectares of land, including 2,085 hectares in Rangpur, 3,150 hectares in Gaibandha, 6,806 hectares in Kurigram, 1,480 hectares in Lalmonirhat and 5,205 hectares of land in Nilphamari districts in the region.

“We are expecting a better wheat production as farmers have sowed high quality, disease resistant and stress tolerant variety wheat seeds on their crop lands using conservation agriculture (CA)-based technologies,” he said.