The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

Production of Boro rice is expected to go up to 4,09.166.1 tonnes this season from 4,64,937.6 tonnes last year at 80 upazilas in 14 districts of the country mainly due to application of guti urea on 1,51,543 hectares of land instead of traditional broadcast urea.

The additional yield of 75,771.5 tonnes will enable the farmers to earn an extra amount of Tk 136 crore, sources in the Department of Agriculture Extension said.

DAE sources pointed out that use of guti urea has increased the per hectare prodution to 3.2 tonnes from 2.7 tonnes.Besides, the farmers

have been able to save over Tk 42 crore from the use of guti urea,a new invention, which is being successfully experimented in some pockets of the country.

"Our farmers at the 80 upazilas have saved 13,103 metric tonnes of urea by using Guti urea, said Md Abdul Muyeed, an official of DAE The farmers have used 24,246 tonnes of Guti on 1,51,543 hectares land this season as against 37,431 tonnes of traditional urea last year, he added.

He pointed out that the country needs 28.18 lakh tonnes of urea annually.The use of guti urea will reduce its import from abroad.

Korshed Alam, a farmer of Gazimura village under Laksham Upazila in Comilla, told the New Nation that he has got additional one maund of paddy by using Guti urea on his land this year.

Md Abdul Hannan, another farmer of the same Upazila, said he used 90 kilograms of guti urea fertiliser on his 36 decimals of land this year against 150 kilograms of traditional fertiliser last year.

"Guti urea makes rice farming more sustainable, efficient, productive and profitable and increases the efficiency of nutrient inputs, particularly nutrient from urea fertiliser," said Md Mofizul Islam, an agricultural specialist of Asia Division of International Centre for Soil Fertility and Agricultural Development (IFDC).

Guti urea is also environment friendly,according to him.

The guti urea scheme was taken up in November 2007 by the Department of Agricultural Extension with a fund of Tk 5.71 crore provided by USAID and technical assistance from IFDC.

The second phase of guti urea programme has been launched in another 150 upazilas in 34 districts this year with Tk 5 crore USAID.

Under the project, the Government has started motivational campaign among the farmers to use guti urea.

Agriculture Adviser Dr CS Karim has visited different upazila to motivate the farmers to use Guti urea on their lands. As a part of this, the Agriculture Adviser visited Laksham on Friday.

Dr Karim urged the farmers to use guti urea instead of traditional urea to meet their income goal.

He said more efficient use of urea should be ensured to meet production and income goals and minimise the leakage of nitrogen to the environment.

A recent survey showed that application guti urea has increased paddy yield by 900 to 1100 kgs per hectare, reduced urea use by 78 to 150 kgs per hectare and subsequently increased profits of the growers by Tk 7,500 to 8,900 per hectare.

These numbers represent an average increase in paddy yield of 22 percent, an average decrease in urea fertilizer use of 47 percent and average increase of profit 24 percent, according to the survey.