Zakir Hossain . Rangpur, The Daily New Age, 26 November 2007

POTATO cultivation in eight districts of the Rangpur-Dinajpur region is likely to face a setback this year due to shortage of quality seeds.
   A total of 1.15 lakh hectares of land were brought under the potato cultivation with a production target of 19,56,700 tonnes. The demand for seeds in the targeted land is about 1.5 lakh tonnes while the Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation could supply only 1,600 tonnes of seeds to the farmers. The huge gap between the demand and supply of quality seeds has worried potato farmers.
   Afzal Hossein, a farmer at Nabdiganj Bazar under the Rangpur district headquarters, said he had planned to cultivate potato on his one acre of land this year. He tried to collect seeds from the BADC and NGOs to ensure the quality. But he could not procure it, as the supply was very thin. So, he managed seeds from local markets. He apprehended that the production would be affected, as the seeds collected from local markets were not quality seeds.
   According to farmers, they are somehow collecting seeds from local NGOs like BRAC and Rangpur-Dinajpur Rural Service, private sectors and elsewhere. Many of them alleged that the quality of the seeds that they were managing was substandard. Farmers feared that the production would be affected for the huge shortfall of quality seeds.
   Officials in the Department of Agriculture Extension said a total of 1,15,100 hectares of land were brought under potato cultivation in Rangpur, Dinajpur, Gaibandha, Kurigram, Lalmonirhat, Thakurgaon, Nilphamari and Panchagarh this year while it was 1.35 lakh hectares in the last year.
   Of the target, 33,500 hectares were brought under Rangpur, 26,300 hectares under Dinajpur, 16,700 hectares under Nilphamari, 16,200 hectares under Thakurgaon, 6,700 hectares under Gaibandha, 6,700 hectares under Panchagarh, 4,500 hectares under Kurigram and 4,500 hectares under Lalmonirhat.
   Asadur Rhaman, deputy director of the Rangpur BADC, said there would be no shortage of seeds as a huge stock of seeds remained in the hands of farmers.
   But MG Neazi, agriculture coordinator of the RDRS, said the farmers preserved potato for consumption which was being sold now in the local markets as seeds. ‘It is completely substandard,’ he added.
   Neazi said the RDRS had planned to combat the seed crisis launching a pilot programme. It has planned to train up groups of farmers in the production of quality seeds, he added.
   ‘About 70-80 per cent demands of the seeds are met up by the farmers. So, they need to be trained up in the production of quality seeds ’, Neazi said.

Our Correspondent . Rangpur, The Daily New Age, 30 November 2007

Farmers of Nobdiganj and Kolyani unions under Pirgachha upazila blocked the Rangpur-Kurigram highway for about two hours Thursday demanding fertilisers.
   Locals and police said several hundred vehicles remained stranded on both ways, causing enormous trouble to the passengers.
   A huge number of farmers of the two unions gathered in front of the shop of Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation dealer Kashem Patwari for collecting coupons for TSP and MoP fertilisers from sub assistant agriculture officer sitting there.
   The agriculture official stopped issuing slips at about 10:00 am as the dealer’s shop ran out of the stock of TSP and MoP.
   This angered the large crowd of farmers waiting in queues for hours. An angry mob then blocked Rangpur-Kurigram highway from 10:00 am until police and members of the joint forces cleared the road at about 12:00 noon.