Bumper production of Boro paddy has brought smiles on the faces of farmers in the haor region of Netrakona and Kishoreganj.

Harvesting is going on there.

"I cultivated the paddy on around 30 acres of land this year and I have got on average 60 to 70 maunds of paddy per acre," said Mozammel Haque, a farmer of Nurpur Boali village in Netrakona's Khaliajuri.

Another farmer of the same area Faruq Chowdhury said he grew the paddy on around 10 acres and had a better production compared to the previous year.

Farmers started harvesting the paddy towards the end of last month and will continue it throughout this month, said Habibur Rahman, upazila agricultural officer in Khaliajuri.

Unlike last year, farmers of most of the areas are not facing any crisis of labour this time. Furthermore, many affluent farmers are using combine harvesters to smoothen their harvesting, said Abdus Shakur Saadi, agriculture extension officer in Netrakona's Mohanganj upazila.

Combine harvester is a versatile machine for reaping, threshing, and winnowing.

A machine can reap an acre of land per hour and the harvest cost by the machine is one fourth than that of manual labour, said Saadi.

Boro paddy was grown in around 185,000 hectares of land in Netrakona. Around 60 percent paddy has already been harvested, said Habibur Rahman, deputy director of the district's agricultural extension department.

Besides, the paddy was cultivated on 166,000 hectares in Kishoreganj. Around 20 percent paddy has been reaped, said Saiful Alam, DD of DAE in the district.

Along with the bumper production, farmers are getting fair prices of their produce.

"This year, we are selling our Boro paddy between Tk 830 to Tk 850 a maund. The price was Tk 750-770 last year," said farmer Mozammel in Netrakona's Khaliajuri.

Another farmer Zilur Rahman of Moisharkandi area in Kishoreganj's Mithamoin upazila echoed with Mozammel.

Talking to this correspondent, several DAE officials said they were providing all kinds of support to farmers for yielding good production and getting fair prices.