KISHOREGANJ, May 6: In order to encourage more and more cultivation of Aus paddy, the government has decided to provide incentives of 1 crore 1 lakh 46 thousand and 322 taka in cash and kind to at least 7050 small and marginal farmers out of about 1.88 lakh in the district this year.
The programme has been launched with a view to keeping the environmental balance as well as to utilising the fallow lands at marginal level, according to the information of the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) office in Kishoreganj.
The DAE sources said that the farmers of Kishoreganj Sadar upazila will enjoy the maximum benefits in the declared incentive, but the farmers of other seven upazilas out of 13 will also avail the benefits.
The DAE sources informed that there are 26,875 hectares of land suitable for Aus paddy farming in Kishoreganj. Due to consecutive natural calamity for the last few years 26,030 hectares of land were brought under Aus paddy cultivation last year.
According to the instruction underlined in the scheme of the DAE, only one farmer per bigha will be eligible for the incentive. These incentives are being provided among the farmers throughout the country for cultivating Aus paddy of Ufshi and Nerica varieties.
For the cultivation of Ufshi variety, each farmer will get five kg seeds of the variety, 20 kg urea fertiliser, 10 kg Di-Ammonium Phosphate (DAP) fertiliser, 10 kg Muriate of Potash (MOP) fertiliser, and cash Tk 400 for irrigation purpose. Besides, 80 farmers will also get incentives for cultivation of pumpkin.
On the other hand, each farmer for Nerica cultivation will get 10 kg seeds of Nerica variety, 20 kg urea fertiliser, 10 kg DAP fertiliser, 10 kg MOP fertiliser, cash Tk 400 for irrigation purpose, and Tk 400 cost for cleaning of weeds.
The Ufshi variety abounds in BRRI paddy 3, 21, 26 and 48. The farmers will receive the cash money through mobile banking platform 'bKash', the source maintained.
A letter concerning the guidelines for distributing the incentives arrived in Kishoreganj two weeks back. Following this, a district level committee headed by the Deputy Commissioner (DC) as convener and the Deputy Director (DD) of DAE as member secretary and an incentive implementation committee headed by the Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) as convener and Upazila Agriculture Officer as member secretary have been formed.
Besides, it was strongly instructed in the letter to reach all the incentives to each farmer within a month. Following this agriculture officers are working hard at union level.
While talking with agriculture officers, this correspondent came to know that the existing agriculture rehabilitation committee in each union parishad (UP) will prepare a list of farmers and send it to upazila committee for scrutiny and forward the same to the district committee.
Later, the upazila committee will verify the list again and send it to the district committee. After this, the incentives will be sent to respective upazilas from the districts. According to latest information, incentive packages have started arriving here.
In Kishoreganj district, maximum Aus cultivation is recorded in Sadar, Hossainpur, Pakundia and Katiadi upazilas.
Among the upazilas, farmers of Sadar upazila will receive maximum incentive. Here 2,370 farmers have been enlisted for the incentive, whereas 1,710 in Hossainpur, 1,455 in Pakundia, 1,055 in Katiadi, 215 in Karimganj, 115 in Bajitpur, 85 in Kuliarchar, and 45 in Bhairab will receive the incentives in cash and kind.
Deputy Director of DAE in Kishoreganj Md. Safiqul Islam said, "The underground water level is lowering day by day which is a threat to the Boro paddy farming since it requires 3,000 litres of water for producing one kg of the paddy. The season of Aus paddy ranges from March 15 till the end of July. At that time, there is sufficient rainfall. So there is no need of extra cost for irrigation."
"With a view to preserve underground water and to utilise the fallow lands for producing more paddy, the government has decided to implement the initiative," the DD added.
The farmers are now using modern technologies in agriculture sector. Last year, due to natural disaster the Aus paddy production suffered a minor blow. So, this year mass awareness programmes will be conducted in farmer level to generate interest among them in Aus paddy farming, the DD further added.