Ninety-seven per cent of the rice in the haors has already been harvested. This year boro rice was grown on 453,400 hectares in the haors alone across the seven haor districts: Sylhet, Moulvibazar, Habiganj, Sunamganj, Kishoreganj, Netrokona and Brahmanbaria. Of this, rice on 438,000 hectares has been harvested so far. Across the country, 33 per cent of boro rice has been cut so far.

The government is implementing a range of measures to make the haor crop risk-free. So that ripe rice can be brought home quickly, the government led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is providing haor farmers with combine harvesters and reapers at a 70 per cent subsidy.

According to the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), more than 4,400 combine harvesters were used to cut rice in the seven haor districts this year, including 100 new ones allocated this year. Combine harvesters were also brought in from other parts of the country to harvest the haor boro crop, making it possible to cut the rice quickly.

This year boro rice has been grown on 5,058,000 hectares across the country, about 20,000 hectares more than the target. The target for rice production from boro this season is 22.2 million tonnes.

At a recent boro harvest festival in Hail Haor in Sreemangal, Moulvibazar, Agriculture Minister Dr Md Abdus Shahid said boro rice supplies more than half of the country's total annual rice production. "That is why we have given great importance to increasing boro cultivation and yield this year too. Seeds, fertiliser and other inputs worth Tk 215 crore were given to farmers free of charge to expand boro cultivation," he said. He added that if the country's boro crop can be brought home successfully, there will be little risk to the nation's food supply.

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