Govt sets a target to produce 2.26cr tonnes boro rice in FY25

The government has planned to produce 2.26 crore tonnes of boro rice from 50.70 lakh hectares of land in 2024-25 fiscal year.

In view of this, the government has taken all-out preparations for smooth cultivation of the single largest crop variety in the country.

The early boro cultivation has already begun at the haor area while plain land farmers started preparing seedlings.

The government has taken steps to ensure supply of adequate fertilizer including the urea and non-urea as country's two-thirds rice is produced during boro season.

Regarding the achievement of the boro production, M Saiful Alam, director general (DG) of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) said, country's major demand of food supply is usually met by the boro production.

To fulfill the target, he said, hybrid, different high-yielding variety (HYV) and local variety will be cultivated during the season.

DAE is encouraging the farmers to cultivate the high-yielding varieties like BRRI-29 for achieving the optimum production according to the target, said Sarker Safi Uddin Ahmed, director (field service) of DAE.

"We are suggesting the farmers to cultivate different mega varieties like BR-89, 92 and BR-102 as the farmers can get significant production", he said.

According to DAE target hybrid rice will be cultivated on 14,94,920 hectares of land, high-yielding variety on 35,61,012 hectares of land and local variety on 13,500 hectares of land.

In Dhaka region, 5,98,234 hectares of land will be brought under boro cultivation- where hybrid rice will be cultivated on 1,13,540 hectares of land, HYV will be cultivated on 4,82,718 hectares of land and only 1,976 hectares of land will be cultivated for local variety, according to DAE.

In Mymensingh region, 6,70,497 hectares of land would be brought under boro cultivation. The hybrid will be cultivated on 2,58,130 hectares, high yielding variety (HYV) on 4,12,001 hectares and local variety on 366 hectares of land.

In Cumilla region, 3,37,467 hectares of land would come under boro cultivation where hybrid will be cultivated on 71,870 hectares, 2,65,567 hectares of land will be brought under HYV cultivation and local variety will be cultivated on 30 hectares of land.

In Sylhet region, boro rice will be cultivated on 4,96,746 hectares of land. The hybrid will be cultivated on 1,43,795 hectares of land, HYV will be cultivated on 3,49,826 hectares of land and local variety will be cultivated on 3,125 hectares of land.

In Chattogram region, the boro rice will be cultivated on 2,93,200 hectares of land where hybrid will be cultivated on 1,44,530 hectares of land, HYV will be cultivated on 1,48,500 hectares and local variety will be cultivated on 170 hectares.

In Rangamati region, boro rice will be cultivated on 27,827 hectares of land.

Boro cultivation has been targeted on 3,76,110 hectares of land in Rajshahi region. Out of that HYV will be cultivated on 3,39,760 hectares of land, hybrid will be cultivated on 36,350 hectares of land.

In Bogura region, the boro rice will be cultivated on 4,55,482 hectares of land, hybrid will be cultivated on 51,550 hectares of land and HYV will be cultivated on 4,01,212 hectares of land.

In Rangpur region, 5,08,978 hectares would be brought under boro cultivation. Hybrid will be cultivated on 2,27,856 hectares of land, HYV on 2,80,015 hectares and local on 1,110 hectares.

Boro rice will be cultivated on 2,15,245 hectares of land in Barishal region where most of the land will be covered by high yielding variety of boro rice.

Talking about overall urea and non-urea fertiliser stock ahead of boro season, Md Aminul Islam, deputy director (fertiliser management) of DAE said there are enough fertiliser stock in the country for boro season.

For January to March, the government has a stock of urea of 11,04,908 tonnes, 2,35,765 tonnes Triple Super Phosphate (TSP), 4,80,459 tonnes Di-Ammonium Phosphate (DAP) and 2,56,023 tonnes Muriate of Potash (MoP) at the field level for cultivating boro and other winter season crops.

Last year, country's boro production was 2.10 crore tonnes on 48 lakh hectares of land.