Farmers in five northern districts under Rangpur division are now passing busy time in cultivating short duration varieties of aus paddy.

The farmers are getting more interested in aus cultivation as it can be cultivated between boro and aman paddy, manifesting a trend of changed pattern in cropping for the last couple of years.

Only a few years ago, the farmers used to keep their croplands fallow between mid May to end of July.

This year, the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) in Rangpur set a target for aus cultivation on 22,198 hectares of land in Rangpur, Gaibandha, Kurigram, Lalmonirhat and Nilphamari districts with prospective production target of 56,414 tonnes of rice.

Of the cultivated land, 13,981 hectares are in Rangpur district, 4,940 hectares in Lalmonirhat, 1,805 hectares in Kurigram, 1,082 hectares in Gaibandha and 390 hectares in Nilphamari, DAE sources said.

However, the farmers cultivated aus on 22,806 hectares of land which is 7 percent higher than the previous year.

Agriculture experts said aus paddy is drought tolerant and can be cultivated and harvested before full scale rainy season and flood.