The farmers are happy getting lucrative price of jute after completing its harvest and production of 5.18 lakh bales (94,086 tonnes) in all five districts of Rangpur agriculture region this season, reports BSS.

Assistant Director of the Rangpur office of the Directorate of Jute Saifur Rahman on Wednesday said farmers are selling newly harvested jute at rates between Taka 2,100 and Taka 2,400 per mound (every 40 kg) depending on varieties and quality of the fibre.

Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) officials said farmers completed harvesting jute last week and got an excellent yield rate of 11.51 bales (2.09 tonnes) per hectare on an average this season.

Additional Director of the DAE for Rangpur region Agriculturist Muhammad Ali said a target of producing over 5.70 lakh bales of jute was fixed from 51,592 hectares of land in the region in current season.

Under the programme, farmers produced 5.32 lakh bales of ‘Tosha’ variety jute fibre from 47,380 hectares of land, 31,681 bales of ‘Deshi’ variety fibre from 3,512 hectares, 2,125 bales of ‘Mechta’ variety from 250 hectares and 3,870 bales of Kenaf variety from 450 hectares of land of land this time.

“However, enthusiastic farmers have finally brought 51,791 hectares of land under jute cultivation exceeding the fixed farming target by 199 hectares of land or 0.39 percent this season in the region,” Ali said.

But, the recent floods in two phases caused production losses of 13,323 tonnes of jute worth Taka 52 crore on 6,442 hectares of land affecting 65,109 farmers in the region.

Despite damages caused by flood, farmers completed harvesting of the remaining jute on 45,349 hectares of land in Rangpur, Kurigram, Gaibandha, Nilphamari and Lalmonirhat districts and got excellent output of the fibre.

Ali said there would be more jute output if the recent floods did not damage the crop in the region where enthusiastic farmers exceeded its fixed farming target despite cultivation of Aus rice and maize on more land area this season.

“Along with the DAE, Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation, Bangladesh Jute Research Institute and other organisations provided necessary assistance, training and technologies to farmers for enhancing jute farming,” Ali added.

Talking to BSS, jute growers Nurul Amin, Akbar Hossain, Sukumar Roy and Anisul Haque at Badarganj Jute Market in Rangpur said they sold their newly harvested jute at rates between Taka 2,200 and Taka 2,400 per mound.

Similarly, farmers Aminul Haque at Kanthalbari Bazar in Kurigram and Akmal Hossain at Sadullapur Bazar in Gaibandha said they sold their harvested ‘Tosha’ variety of jute at the price between Taka 2,300 and Taka 2,400 per mound last week.