In Feni's six upazilas, transplanted aman has exceeded its sowing target, and yields have also beaten the target. More than half of the district's paddy has already been harvested, and the agriculture department expects the rest to take a week or more.

According to the agriculture department, the target for transplanted aman this year was 66,755 hectares, and about 67,000 hectares were planted across the six upazilas. High-yielding varieties dominated: farmers planted high-yielding varieties on about 90 percent of the target, covering 63,785 hectares, against 2,921 hectares of local varieties and just 88 hectares of hybrids. The production target for high-yielding varieties was 4.05 tonnes per hectare, but land already harvested has yielded more.

Farmers in the field said timely rain and favourable weather gave a good aman yield this year. Sub-assistant agriculture officers of the extension department, from district to field level, also encouraged farmers to grow aman and gave technical support in various ways.

Main Uddin, a farmer from Mamarijpur village in Matubhuiyan union of Daganbhuiyan upazila, said he grew high-yielding aman on 2 acres. The flood this year raised soil fertility, so less fertiliser was used and costs were somewhat lower than in other years.

According to the agriculture department, 83 percent of the harvest was complete as of Thursday. Harvesting began in the district on 20 November, and the remaining land will be harvested by 20 December.

Mohammad Atiq Ullah, deputy director of the Department of Agricultural Extension, said favourable weather and timely rain produced a bumper aman crop in the district. Silt deposited by the flood also halved fertiliser use, cutting farmers' costs while the good yield brought smiles to their faces. This season farmers also benefited from using perching and light traps to control pests, he said.

"We are trying to reduce the amount of fallow land in the district. Agriculture department staff are encouraging farmers to bring all kinds of land under cultivation. The government, too, is giving farmers various incentives to raise production," he added.

Reported by Abdullah Al-Mamun.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.