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Download PDF The harvest of Aman saw a shortfall of four lakh tons against the target of 13.21 lakh tons this season in 16 northern districts under Rajshahi division, according to Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE).
Local farmers and DAE officials blamed it on the unavailability of different fertilisers including urea and the recent floods throughout the season of Aman cultivation.
Farmer Abu Bakker Siddique from Khottapara village in Shahjahanpur upazila, Bogra said though his cultivable land is above the floodplains, per hectare yield of Aman this season was 2.4 tons lower than the previous season as sufficient fertiliser was not available in the area this season.
As opposed to a harvest of 4.5 tons of Aman using 225 kg of urea on each hectare of land the previous season, he wound up harvesting only 2.1 tons this season as he managed to apply only 135 kg of urea on each hectare of the cultivated land, said Siddique.
Fazlur Rahman, another farmer from Buroil village in Nandigram upazila of Bogra, said fertiliser scarcity caused him suffer a shortage of 0.48 ton of Aman per hectare of land compared to the harvest he reaped from the same land the previous season.
Last season Rahman applied 440 kg urea per hectare to cultivate Khato Bhada and Shil Komal, two verities of Aman, and obtained a harvest of 2.20 tons a hectare. Whereas this season the yield of the same crop was only 1.72 tons per hectare as he could not apply more than 220 kg of urea on each hectare of land due to acute fertiliser crisis, said Rahman.
DAE sources in Kurigram said fertiliser crisis and the floods resulted in a deficit of 71 thousand tons in the harvest of Aman in the district against the estimated target of 2.71 lakh tons.
The district of Bogra, known for its food surplus, also felt the pinch as the target harvest of Aman was 99 thousand tons short of the targeted 4.89 lakh tons.
The recent floods and the fertiliser crisis have affected the harvest, said DAE sources in Bogra.
Aman harvest in Sirajganj also failed to achieve its target and lagged behind at least 1.16 tons due to the recent floods and water logging, said DAE officials in the district.
A senior DAE official said the yield of Aman in the district this season was only 33 thousand tons against the estimated target of 1.49 lakh tons.
In Gaibanda, Aman harvest was 98 thousand tons less than the estimated target of 2.88 lakh tons while in Pabna, the target deficit was 13 thousand tons.
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