Madaripur mustard farmers are passing very busy time in harvesting the crop as they have achieved bumper yield this year and are expecting huge profit.
The farmers have been showing interest in mustard farming this year thanks to the higher price of edible oil in the market. Farmers have brought over 2000 hectares of land under mustard cultivation this year against the previous year.
According to the District Agriculture Extension department information, mustard is cultivated on 15,650 hectares of land in four upazilas of the district this year against 13,604 hectares of land in the previous year.
Merjon Khalasi, a mustard farmer of the district, said that mustard is being sold at the rate of Tk 3,300 to Tk 3,500 per maund (37.32 kg).
Generally, 12 to 13 maund mustard can be produced from one bigha of land costing Tk 8,000 to Tk 9,000, Merjon Khalasi added.
Md. Moazzem Hossain, Deputy Director of district Agriculture Department, said that four upazilas of Madaripur got bumper production this year. We hope farmers will earn good profit this year.
The government has a plan to produce 50 percent of the annual demand for edible oil in the country in the next three years, said Minister for Agriculture Dr Md Abdur Razzaque at a programme in Gazipur ecently.
The minister said the mustard farmers are getting benefited financially by cultivating such hybrid varieties of mustard redesigned by the country’s agriculturalists.
The Agricultural Ministry has taken a massive initiative to boost up the mustard production, he said.