14-04-2021

WedNeSdAY, APril 14, 2021
6
Bangladesh Coast Guard Station Pagla in a special operation at Soarighat and Narayanganj seized
3,600 kg jatkas along with a speedboat. Photo Courtesy
66,283 tonnes of
wheat produced in
Rangpur region
Woman brutally
tortured over
dowry in Magura
A housewife was brutally
tortured and later abandoned
allegedly by her husband on
Friday in Magura.
The husband reportedly
broke his wife's arms and legs
and later dropped her
unconscious body off to a
local hospital, reports UNB.
The victim, identified as
Sritma Begum, had bruises all
over her body.
Although the incident had
occured on Friday, the family
of the victim could not gather
the courage to speak up about
it till Monday out of fear and
unawareness.
The incident was exposed
today when leaders of
Magura District Women's
Council and officials of the
District's One Stop Crisis Cell
visited the victim at the
hospital.
The victim's father, a day
labourer, told UNB that he
married his daughter off to
Amir Hossain 17 years ago.
He has been providing dowry
since then.
He also sent his son-in-law
to Oman by mortgaging his
land. The son-in-law came
back from abroad last
January and demanded
money again. He started
abusing and torturing his wife
when his father in law failed
to provide any money.
At one stage of the
altercation on the day of the
incident, son-in-law Amir
GD-667 (3 x 3)
Hossain beat Smriti Begum
with an iron rod and broke
both her arms and one leg.
Besides, he carried out
unspeakable torture on
different parts of her body.
When Smriti fainted, her
husband dropped her off at
Magura Sadar Hospital and
left. While talking to UNB,
the victim said that her
husband and his mother
often used to beat her over
money. When asked by the
reporter, Amir said that a
fight broke out between them
when he asked for the money
he sent from abroad.
RANGPUR : Farmers produced 66,283 tonnes of wheat after
completing its harvest last week in all five districts of
Rangpur agriculture region during this 2020-2021 Rabi
season.
Officials of the Department of Agricultural Extension
(DAE) said farmers produced 328 tonnes of more wheat this
season against the production of 65,955 tonnes from 18,726
hectares of land during the last 2019-2020 Rabi season.
"The DAE had fixed a target of producing 69,630 tonnes of
wheat from 19,550 hectares of land for the region this
season," Additional Director of the DAE for Rangpur region
Agriculturist Khandker Abdul Wahed told BSS.
However, enthusiastic farmers finally brought 21,160
hectares of land under wheat cultivation getting various
assistance and incentives from the government and exceeded
the fixed farming target by 1,610 hectares or 3.12 percent this
time. "Farming of the less irrigation water consuming cereal
crop of wheat has become popular among farmers as they
achieved excellent production with lucrative prices in recent
years," he said.
The DAE, Bangladesh Agriculture Development
Corporation, Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute
(BARI) and other agriculture related organisations extended
assistance to farmers to make the wheat farming programme
successful this time.
"The government supplied quality wheat seeds and
provided latest technologies, training, fertilisers and other
inputs to farmers who finally achieved a better wheat
production this season," Wahed said.
The farmers mostly cultivated high yielding wheat varieties
like 'Bijoy', 'Pradip', 'Sotabdi', BARI Gom25, BARI Gom26,
BARI Gom27, BARI Gom28 and BARI Gom29 using
conservation agriculture (CA)-based technologies to enhance
production.
Talking to BSS, Senior Coordinator (Agriculture and
Environment) of RDRS Bangladesh Agriculturist Mamunur
Rashid said farmers are showing more interest in wheat
farming adopting latest technologies being provided by the
government in recent years.
"Adoption of the CA-based strip tillage and bed planting
methods in sowing wheat seeds using seeder machines
largely increases wheat yield reducing need for irrigation
compared to the full tillage methods and largely saving
labour costs," he said.
In the past, wheat production was being affected due to
adverse impacts of high temperature on its farming from
flowering to ripening stages and late sowing of seeds after
harvesting late varieties of Aman rice and use of low quality
local seeds. "However, farmers are sowing high quality,
disease resistant and stress tolerant varieties of wheat seeds
timely using the lowest cost CA-based technologies after
harvesting short duration Aman rice to get bumper output,"
Rashid said. Deputy Director of the DAE for Rangpur Dr Md
Sarwarul Haque said there was no recurrence of blast disease
this time and farmers got excellent yield rate of 3.29 tonnes
of wheat per hectare in the region.
650 marginal farmers get
agri-incentive in Raipura
NARSINGDI : The Department of Agriculture Extension
(DAE) distributed agriculture incentives in terms of Aush
seed and fertilisers among 650 small and marginal farmers
of 18 unions under Raipura upazila in the district on
Monday.
The incentives were distributed at a function held at the
upazila parishad office premises to assist the small and
marginal farmers in cultivating the crop during the Kharip-
1 season.
Upazila parishad chairman Abdus Sadek distributed the
incentives among the farmers at the function as chief guest
with Raipura Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Shofiqul
Islam in the chair.
Upazila agriculture officer Boni Amin Khan, Raipura
Press Club president Mostafa Khan, secretary Nur Uddin
Ahmed and chairmen and members of different unions
were present at the function.
GD-661/21 (13x6)