Bumper mustard production likely as plantation exceeds target

Mustard cultivation is gaining momentum in the district as additional 4,729 hectares of land have brought under cultivation of the oil seed in the winter season.

At the outset of the farming, the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) has set a target to cultivate mustard on 19,457 hectares of land while it has already reached 24,186 hectares.

The farmers are optimistic about bumper mustard output as cultivation of this particular type of oil seed in the thirteen upazilas of the district has exceeded the target during this current winter season, said M Nuruzzaman Mia, DEA’s Deputy Director, Dinajpur.

In the last year, mustard was cultivated on 19,325 hectares of land and DAE has extended the the current year’s cultivation target based on the success of the last year.

Talking about success of mustard cultivation, M Zahidur Rahman, assistant director, Dinajpur regional agricultural department, said agriculture incentives have been distributed among the farmers in November, last year aiming to make mustard cultivation a success.

Under the incentives, the official said the government has distributed two kilograms (kg) mustard seed, 10 kg Muriate of Potash (MoP), 10 kg urea at free of cost among 23,200 farmers for cultivating mustard on a bigha of land.

The agricultural department has taken a plan to make the mustard cultivation at least double in the district in the next year, according to the DAE official, adding that the agriculture department is working to fulfill the large portion of edible oil demand through increasing the mustard cultivation.

“We are expecting bumper mustard output, which would be 8-9 maund (38.39kgs) in per bigha of land,” said Abur Razzaque, a farmer of village Nashipur of Sadar Upazila under Dinajpur.

At present, the farming cost of mustard on a bigha of land is approximately Taka 10,000-12,000 while the market price of per maund mustard is Taka 25,000, said the grower.

Even the oil seed is also being contributed to fulfill the demand of edible oil of a family.
“We are getting 16 liters of oil from each maund of mustard meant 400 liters of mustard oil come from one metric tons or 1000 kgs of raw mustard”, said Sakibul Hasan, owner of a local Pubali Oil Factory.

The demand of this particular variety of oil has been increasing day by day at the consumers level due to increasing people’s health consciousness, he added. (BSS)