Farmers are expecting to produce 29 thousand tons of sweet potato in Jamalpur this year. Photo : BSS

JAMALPUR, Feb 20, 2025 (BSS) - Farmers are expecting 29000 tones of sweet potato production in the district this year, a sharp rise of 807 tones from the previous year.

Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) office sources said 1144 hectares of land came under sweet potato cultivation in the district this year which is 47 hectares more than the cultivation target.

They said farmers cultivated various varieties of sweet potato seed in the district this year.

The varieties are BARI-2, BARI-3, BARI-4, BARI-8, BARI-9, BARI-14, Tripti, kamola Sundari, Murasaki, Okinawa, KKE-14 and local.

Sarishabari Upazila Agriculture Officer, Anup Sinha said farmers brought a large number of lands in Char areas under sweet potato cultivation in the Uapazila. 

He said expecting profitable , farmers are bringing more land under this crop cultivation in the Upazila.

He also added, farmers cultivated sweet potato on 675 hectares of land in Sarishabari Upazila. This year farmers got 26 tones of sweet potatoes from per hectare of land against the target of 25.73 tones in Sarishabari Upazila.

According to DAE office, farmers cultivated sweet potatoes on 220 hectares of land in Islampur, 195 hectares in Madarganj, 8 hectares in Dewanganj, 15 hectares in Bakshiganj, 15 hectares in Melandah and 16 hectares in Jamalpur Sadar Upazila.

Deputy Director of DAE Zakia Sultana said farmers are interested in this crop cultivation due to less production cost and fair price.

The agriculture department is also providing support to the farmers to increase the cultivation to increase production, she added.