Dhaka: The government will distribute about 422.4 tonnes of high-yielding jute seeds among two lakh farmers in 44 districts this season.

Two new high-yielding jute varieties — O-9897 and O-72 — innovated by Bangladesh Jute Research Institute will be distributed among farmers under the ‘High-Yielding Jute and Jute Seed Production and Jute Retting Development Project’ of Textile and Jute Ministry.

A total of 2,112 kilograms of jute seeds has already been allocated for 1000 farmers in each of 200 upazilas, the public relations officer of the Textiles and Jute Ministry M Rezaul Karim told the news agency on Thursday.

‘Each farmer will get 2.112 kilograms of jute seed at free of cost, as the seed distribution is set to begin soon,’ he added.

Of the total 422.4 tonne jute seeds, O-9897 seed is 393.4 tonnes while O-72 seed is 29 tonnes. The market value of the high-yielding jute seeds is about Tk six crore [Tk 142 per kg].

Rezaul Karim said the jute seeds have already been sent to the upazilas being covered under the project and upazila seed distribution committees have been asked to take necessary measures to distribute the seed among jute farmers.

The Textile and Jute Ministry asked the jute farmers to contact the upazila jute development officer immediately to get the high-yielding jute seeds.

Around 1.82 lakh acres of arable land is expected to be brought under jute cultivation this season with 422.4 metric tonne jute seeds to be distributed among the farmers.