C T Online Desk: Drought and floods are likely to affect this year’s production of aman rice, the country’s second-largest staple crop, at a time when farmers are struggling to cultivate their lands due to high costs of agricultural inputs, including diesel and fertilisers.
Experts expressed the fear that food production might decrease if the flood lingered while the drought is already affecting the cultivation of the paddy in the rainy season.
Farmers in the northern region said that they could not plant the seedlings due to the drought in the past two weeks as this year has seen the severest drought in 42 years in Bangladesh.
On the other hand, aman rice cultivated by about 10,000 farmers was submerged in the Rangpur region due to the ongoing flood.
A total of 25 lakh hectares of land was targeted for aman cultivation in the 16 northern districts, out of an estimated 59 lakh hectares across the country, according to Department of Agricultural Extension officials.
Fatema Akhter, a farmer in Mithapukur upazila of Rangpur, said that she could not plant aman seedlings due to the drought this year.
‘We are waiting for rain. If our production is hampered, what can we do?’ she asked.
New Age Staff Correspondent in Rajshahi reported that many farmers were forced to irrigate their fields due to the drought at an additional cost of Tk 2,000 per bigha.
Ansar Ali, a farmer in Godagari upazila in Rajshahi, told New Age that he cultivated aman paddy in his land with the help of deep tube well water.
He said that he had to spend extra Tk 2,000 for irrigating each bigha of land.
Ujjal Ali, a farmer in Paba upazila, said that he could not harvest jute from his land due to water scarcity.
‘Jute crop became ready for harvesting 20 days ago. But I could not cut and put jute plants earlier in water as there was little rainfall in this season and water bodies were dry,’ he added.
He said that he would now cut the jute first as water bodies became full after rain and would plant aman paddy then.
Saimur Rahman, a farmer of Muraripur village in Paba upazila, said that they were afraid that the increased fertiliser price would push up the production cost while there was a possibility of lower production this season due to the diminished rainfall.
Contacted, Mozdar Rahman, deputy director, Department of Agricultural Extension, Rajshahi said that aman planting had been delayed in the region by 15–20 days due to the lack of rain.
He said that they had set a target to cultivate aman paddy in 80,000 hectres of land this season.
The agricultural officer, however, said that there would be no problem in planting aman seedlings and having usual yield as it had been raining moderately in the region for a week.
New Age correspondent in Lalmonirhat reported that the aman seedlings planted by about 10,000 farmers were submerged in floodwater in Rangpur and Lalmonirhat districts.
Zail Hossain, a farmer of Gangachara in Rangpur, said that he planted aman seedlings in five bighas of land five days ago and all went under floodwater.
Helal Mia, a Lalmonirhat farmer, said that he could not plant seedlings due to the drought and his 11 bigha land remained uncultivated so far.
Lalmonirhat agricultural extension deputy director Hamidur Rahman said that they had a target of aman cultivation in 25 lakh hectares of land in 16 districts in the northern region.
‘Six lakh hectares was used for aman cultivation. Floodwater from the Teesta has submerged 600 hectares in the region,’ he said.
According to DAE statistics, the country has set a target of 59.059 lakh hectares land for cultivating aman while the crop was planted in about eight lakh hectares till
Monday.
Former research director of the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies M Asaduzzaman said that the aman production would suffer this year as farmers could not plant seedlings for the lack of rainfall in many areas.
‘It is a rain-dependent paddy variety. Farmers cannot manage irrigation for aman cultivation, which must be completed by August 15. So, the aman production is certain to be hampered this year,’ he added.
