High yielding local jute variety makes Jashore farmers happy
However, many jute growers are not satisfied with price this year
Rustom Ali, a resident of Bakra village in Jashore's Jhikargacha upazila, cultivated an Indian variety of jute on five bighas of land last year and got a yield of 48 maunds.
The average yield per hectare was 2.52 tonnes.
This year, Rustom cultivated a Bangladeshi variety of jute on three bighas of land, and got a yield that was almost equal to what he got with the Indian variety on five bighas the previous year.
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The average yield of the Bangladeshi variety was 3.5 tonnes per hectare.
Like Rustom, many farmers in Jashore cultivated JRO 520, a high-yield variety developed by Bangladeshi scientists, this year and saw a boom in output.
The Jashore office of the Department of Agricultural Extension says that farmers in Jashore's four upazilas - Manirampur, Jhikargacha, Abhaynagar and Keshabpur - cultivated Bangladeshi varieties of jute on 484 hectares of land.
In total, 20,140 hectares of land were used for jute cultivation in Jashore district this year.
Asked about jute production from seeds of the indigenous varieties, Kalipad, a farmer of Manirampur upazila's Haridaskathi village, said that he cultivated jute on three bighas of land this season. The production was better than that in the previous years, he said.
Nityanando Boiragi, a farmer of Abhaynagar upazila's Ramsora village, said, "I have cultivated jute on two bighas of land. The yield was better than that of last year."
Sheikh Emdad Hossain, deputy director of the Department's Jashore office, said that farmers cultivated the JRO 524 variety of jute for the first time this year, and the yield was very satisfactory.
Emdad expects that in coming years, more farmers will want to cultivate varieties of jute that have been developed by Bangladeshi scientists.
Dissatisfaction with 'low' price
Although happy with the high yield, many farmers in Jashore are not satisfied with the price of jute this year.
Rustom Ali from Jhikargachha said, "I sold one maund of jute for Tk1,750 last year, but this year the price is wavering between Tk1,300 and Tk1,350 per maund."
Kalipad from Manirampur upazila of the district said he sold each maund of jute for Tk1,400 this year.
"The Jute harvest was better this year. It would have been of greater benefit if the price had been the same as it was last year."
