The cultivation of high-yielding wheat varieties especially BARI GOM-30, BARI GOM-32 and BARI GOM-33 brought smiles on farmers’ face as they have been producing its bumper yield in the region, including its vast Barind tract, for the last few years.
Many farmers cultivated three improved varieties — BARI GOM-30, BARI GOM-32 and BARI GOM-33 — and got around 18 maunds yield per bigha on an average, sources said.
The production cost of the improved wheat varieties is also less as the varieties are disease and drought tolerant, they also said.
Abdul Momin of Pakuria village in Bagha Upazila said he had cultivated Bari gom-33 wheat on 12 bighas of land and got yield 17 maunds per bigha this season.
Shahabul Islam of Monigram village also harvested 18 maunds per bigha after cultivating it on four bigha in the current season.
In the previous year, Enamul Haque, an ideal farmer of Chandipur village under the same upazila, had cultivated the same variety and yielded 18 maunds per bigha.
He sold his produced wheat to the agriculture office and other farmers as seed.
He also cultivated the same variety, getting bumper yield this year saying there was no disease attack to the new varieties resulting in satisfactory yield.
Upazila Agriculture Officer Shafiullah Sultan said farmers fetched income worth around Taka 10.36 crore after cultivating the new varieties in the upazila, vibrating the local economy.
He mentioned that the wheat was cultivated on 6,010 hectares, including the three varieties on 4,207 hectares, in the upazila this year. Of them, the yield of Bari gom-33 is almost high, he said.
Agriculturist Sultan attributed that they will bring all the lands under the new varieties within the next couple of years to boost the wheat production in the upazila.
Dr Ilias Hossain, Principal Scientific Officer of Bangladesh Wheat and Maize Research Institute, told BSS that they are promoting some high yielding, heat and drought tolerant and blast disease resistant varieties like Barigom 28, 29, 30 and 33 among the farmers.
Among those, the Barigom 33 is the latest one which is blast disease resistant, zinc-enriched, large grain size and high yielding (20 maunds per bigha).
Meanwhile, more than 4.03 lakh tonnes of wheat are expected to be produced from around 1.33 lakh hectares of land during the current season in all eight districts of the division.
Many government and non-government organizations are encouraging farmers towards wheat cultivation in the water-stressed Barind area in order to lessen the pressure on its groundwater level.
On behalf of the ‘Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM)’ project, more than 12.58 lakh community people of 2.66 lakh households are being motivated towards promoting the new varieties besides other water-saving crops.
Jahangir Alam Khan, Coordinator of IWRM Project, said DASCOH Foundation has been implementing the project in 1,280 drought-affected villages under 39 Unions and three municipalities of eight upazilas in Rajshahi, Naogaon and Chapainawabganj districts supported by Switzerland since 2015.
He said successful promotion of less-water consuming crops in the Barind area would play a vital role in reducing the gradually mounting stress on its underground water.
Source: Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS)