Farmers expect surplus mustard output as record farming happened

Farmers are expecting surplus output of mustard this year as more land compared to last year has been brought under the rabi crop production in all upazila under the district in the current season.

We are hopeful to get surplus output of mustard in the current rabi season as comparatively more land has been brought under mustard cultivation in nine upazilas including Chalan beel of the district this year, said farmers and agriculture extension officials here today.

Moreover, the beekeepers are also expecting significant financial benefit from honey collection this year from the mustard field across the district.

The vast agricultural land located in Tarash, Ullapara, Shahjadpur and Salanga under Chalan Beel area are now being brought under mustard farming where honey collectors gathered for collecting honey.

In the current season, mustard has been cultivated on 86,460 hectares of land, which is 1,290 hectares more compared to last year, said Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) in Sirajganj.

Last year, overall mustard production was 1,30860 metric tons in the district, said the DAE, adding that the target of mustard production during this season has been fixed at 1,44,000 metric tons as the farmers and extension department of the district are expecting bumper yield of mustard due to favorable weather.

At the same time, the DAE official expected that at least 382 metric tons of honey will be collected from the mustard fields under the district. The estimated price of this collected honey will be over Taka 11 crore as per kg honey is being sold at Taka 300.

“I have set more than 100 beehives on the farmland in Chalan beel area. Significant amount of honey has been collected from the mustard field in the last one week”, said Bappi Rahman, a proprietor of  Jumjum bee farm  house, who came here from Satkhira. “Now I am selling per kg of honey at Taka 300-400.”, Bappi said.

Since the cultivation of mustard was more and the production of honey is likely to increase further due to favorable weather condition, said Swajib Hossen, proprietor of Tawhid honey farm.

More honey boxes have been set up in the mustard crop field compared to last year, said Golam Mostafa, owner of Allahar Dan honey farm, saying that around 5-8 maunds of honey are being collected  in a week.

Many people are coming from distant places for buying honey, said honey trader Rafiqul Islam, adding “I hope that I will be benefited a lot this year.”

Incentives and higher market price prompted the farmers to cultivate mustard crop extensively, said AJM Ahsan Shahid Sarker, deputy director of the DAE, Sirajganj. He said record mustard cultivation has been taken place in the district and target of honey collection of  around 382 metric tons has been fixed this year from the district.

“It is expected that over Taka 11 crore will be earned from selling these amount of honey”, said the DAE official. (BSS)