Strip tillage helps increase wheat production

RANGPUR, Mar 24 (BSS): Experts at a farmers' field day have said adoption of the strip tillage method in sowing wheat seed using Power Tiller Operated Seeder (PTOS) machine substantially increases wheat production at reduced costs. Dinajpur Hub of International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) organised the event on Strip Tillage Wheat Production using PTOS machine in village Sundarban under Sadar upazila of Dinajpur on Wednesday afternoon.
The Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) Project-Phase-III being funded by the USAID and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation assisted in arranging the field day for harvesting wheat cultivated by adopting strip tillage method. Seventy-five farmers visited the block demonstrations of strip tillage wheat cultivation sown using PTOS machine adopting three tillage methods namely bed planting, strip tillage and farmers' conventional practice for six new wheat varieties such as BAW1170, BARI Gom 26, BARI Gom 27, BARI Gom 28, BARI Gom 29 and BARI Gom 30. The participating elite and farmers mostly preferred strip tillage, then bed planting and then the farmers' conventional practice and their first choice was BARI Gom 30 and then BARI Gom 26 among all six cultivated varieties. After visiting demonstration plots of the six new wheat varieties in the field of farmer Chitta Mohan in the village, a discussion was arranged there with Chairman of the Common Interest Group Dijendra Nath Roy in the chair. Director of Wheat Research Centre (WRC) at Nashipur in Dinajpur Dr Naresh Chandra Deb Barma was the chief guest on the occasion. Dinajpur Regional Additional Director of Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) Md Zulfiquer Haider, Senior Scientific Officers of WRC Abdul Hakim and Akbar Hossain attended it as special guests. Dinajpur Hub Coordinator of CIMMYT Anarul Haque narrated the strip tillage method of sowing wheat seed using PTOS machine and filed level trial for cultivation of the wheat varieties. "Strip tillage method allows sowing wheat seed in six lines at a time with narrow ploughing in fields without disturbing most parts of land keeping soil moisture intact for use by crop plants to become healthy and vigorous," he said. The strip tillage method reduces soil erosion, water requirement for irrigation compared to the full tillage wheat plots with 2-3 times of ploughing along with saving time, fuel, money, energy and labour costs and 50 kg wheat seed per hectare. Farmer Chitta Mohan said strip tillage method requires less water than common practice in ploughing land as farmers provided only three irrigation at 21, 55 and 70 days after sowing seed and crop condition was very nice yielding bumper wheat production. Zulfiquer Haider said strip tillage and bed planting methods are looking very good and he put emphasis on popularising these methods among farmers and purchasing the PTOS machine in groups availing 30 per cent government subsidy. Chief Guest Dr Naresh Chandra Deb Barma said CIMMYT, WRC and DAE have been working together with the ultimate target for large-scale adoption of the strip tillage method to reduce production cost and give more profits to wheat farmers.