Farmers in Sirajganj are again hoping for a bumper mustard crop. Good prices last season and agricultural incentives this season have increased mustard cultivation in the district, where farmers have sown the crop on 86,460 hectares. Farmers say they were drawn to mustard because last year's prices met their expectations and the agriculture department gave incentives for growing it. This year's production target for the district is 1.44 lakh tonnes.

Shaminur Islam, a sub-assistant agriculture officer at the district Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), confirmed the figures to Jagonews on the morning of 9 December. He said mustard had been planted on 86,460 hectares across the district's nine upazilas, against a target of 90,000 hectares, but still 1,290 hectares more than last year. Under this year's agricultural programme 82,600 farmers received incentives, 71,000 of them for mustard.

Last year Jabbar Sekh, a farmer from Khamargati village in Raiganj upazila, grew mustard on 2 bighas. It cost him Tk 5,000 to 6,000 a bigha, he harvested 12 maunds and sold it at Tk 3,000 a maund for Tk 36,000. "Because mustard paid off as I had hoped last year, I am growing it on 4 bighas this time. I hope for a good yield and a good price again," he told Jagonews.

"Many farmers used to grow mustard before, but they cut back because they did not get the price they expected," he added. He said farmers would be even keener on the crop if the market price stayed above Tk 3,000.

Monirul Islam, a farmer in Ullapara upazila, told Jagonews: "Last year I grew mustard on 4 bighas. This year I have grown it on 10 bighas. The agriculture department gave us seed and fertiliser as incentives. Last year the yield was good and I got a good price too." He expects 6 to 7 maunds a bigha this time, and said that planting Boro after mustard last year had also given a good paddy yield.

Abdul Momin of Shyampur village in Sirajganj Sadar upazila said: "I had given up mustard because the price was poor. Last year I grew it on 1 bigha and got a good price, so this year I am growing it on 2 bighas."

AJM Ahsan Shahid Sarkar, deputy director of the Sirajganj DAE, told Jagonews: "Mustard is a three-month crop that farmers can grow at low cost and with little labour, and it has now become a profitable crop for them. This year 71,000 farmers in the district were given mustard seed and fertiliser as incentives. The good yield and prices last year encouraged them. Mustard farming is good news for agriculture: it raises soil fertility on the one hand and plays an important role in keeping the environment in balance on the other."

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