South Dinajpur pushes to produce improved varieties of mustard seed

BALURGHAT: Two villages — Azair and Radhanagar — are being developed as seed villages in South Dinajpur’s Kumarganj block for producing improved varieties of mustard seed and saplings.

About 50 farmers of these two villages are cultivating B-54 mustard seed on 20 hectares of land as a model. The two villages will supply mustard seeds from 2025 for agricultural purposes to the entire district.

Cultivation of this mustard with government support through a mulching system is now in the middle stage. The main aim of this plan is to produce all the yield of B-54 mustard grown on 20 hectares of land as improved mustard seeds for next year. With these seeds, more advanced varieties of mustard will be cultivated across all blocks of this district in 2025.

It also aims to avoid the import of mustard seeds from outside. At present, in these two villages, some of the mustard fields have fully flowered. Ichamati Kumarganj Agro Producer Organisation (IKAPO,) a state government undertaking, is helping in this cultivation.

Zairul Sarkar, one of the officials of IKAPO that advises on cultivation, said: “Mustard cultivation is currently in a very good state. This mustard can be cultivated in just 75 days at a very low cost. Harvesting of this mustard will start soon. Next year, when all these mustard seeds are sold as improved mustard seeds, farmers will be able to earn more by getting good prices. Following this cultivation, the rural economy of Kumarganj will become stronger.”

Shibananda Singha, the Chief Scientist of the Agricultural Science Centre, said: “Mustard cultivation has started in two villages of Kumarganj, we are very optimistic about the success of this cultivation and indications are that the yield of mustard will be very good.”