JOYPURHAT, Nov 27: This season potato cultivation has been fixed at 38,815 hectares (ha) of land in the district.
Under the resilient annual crop production programme, the local agriculture department has fixed the potato target in 2023-24 financial year.
According to field sources, at present both transplanted Aman (T-Aman) harvesting and seed potato sowing preparation are going on at a time in the district. Joypurhat is a potato surplus district.
Deputy Director (DD) of the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE)-Joypurhat Rahela Parvin said, activities are going on at a large scale at the field level to achieve the potato cultivation target.
The potato production target has been fixed at 9 lakh 27 thousand 679 metric tons (mt) from 39,815 ha of lands in the district, she added.
Upazila-wise potato cultivation targets include 6,765 ha in Joypurhat Sadar Upazila, 6,910 ha in Panchbibi, 8,580 ha in Khetlal, 10,710 ha in Kalai, and 5,850 ha in Akkelpur upazilas.
After meeting the potato demand in the district, potatoes are sent to other districts of the country.
According to sources at the DAE, there is adequate stock of fertiliser for making the potato farming programme a success. The current stock of fertiliser stands at 8,327 mt till November 6.
The fertiliser includes urea 2,946 mt, TSP 1,293 mt, MoP 1,842 mt, and DAP 2,246 mt.
The fertiliser demand for November has been fixed at 18,926 mt including urea 5,422 mt, TSP 3,100 mt, MoP 5,800 mt, and DAP 4,604 mt.
Sub-assistant agriculture officials are providing field level advice and conducting monitoring round the clock to make the potato cultivation a success.
Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation (BADC) is supplying rich potato seeds among farmers, said Biplob Kumar Mahanta, senior assistant director of BADC.
In the district 5 mt of rich potato seeds were given to each of 130 dealers for sale, he added. This year, per kilogram (kg) rich potato seed price is Tk 58.50.
Rich seed species of private companies including Brac, ACI, Ispahani, Metal and Supreme seed are available adequately in markets. So there is no possibility of seed crisis, the agriculture officials said.
DD Rahela Parvin said, the agriculture department is in stern position about adulterated seeds, with mobile court. From Joypurhat, rich potatoes are exported to nine countries- Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Nepal, and Russia.
In the last year, potato was cultivated on 36,530 ha of land in the district, with a production of 8.15 lakh mt.
Granula, Mujika, Diamond, Cardinal, Roiseta and estorix will mostly be cultivated. These are high-yielding species.
There are 15 cold storages having a capacity of about 1.5 lakh mt in Joypurhat.
