Bumper production of jute expected this season

07 Jul '10

2 min read

A massive production of jute is being predicted this season, as jute crop harvesting has started with good yield rates and profitable prices in northern Bangladesh.

The jute crop this year was cultivated on around 1,99,833 hectares of land, which was around 44 percent more than the 1,38,731 hectares of targeted land for jute farming in the region.

The jute fibres are currently being sold at nearly Tk 2,000 per maund. The jute growers surpassed the target this year beating big hurdles, including seed crisis, droughts, lack of soil moistures and crop diversification. However, they did not attain the farming target last year.

For such an achievement this year, import of required amount of jute seeds and their proper and timely distribution by the government proved very helpful. The Manager of Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia, Dinajpur hub, Dr MA Mazid said that, as the sowing period was extended from the month of April to May end, jute harvesting may go on till the end of July.

Rangpur and Dinajpur jute growers are satisfied over successful jute farming and the special incentives, which were announced a couple of days ago by Agriculture Minister, Matia Chowdhury. They also praised the government for supplying ribbon machines to make jute-rotting process easy and upgrading fibre quality during droughts, like last year.

Dr Mazid further said that, this season, a bumper jute yield can be definitely seen, which is anticipated to reach around 2.2 million bales exceeding the target of 1.474 million bales. He suggested the farmers to produce fine and new variety of jute, including, Lotishail, Nazirshail, Binashail, BR-5 and BRRI Dhan 34 instead of other varieties.

The government has continuously been recommended by the scientists to fix a fair price for jute, reopen closed jute mills and take more efforts to boost jute goods' export.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk - India

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