Cultivation is steadily growing in Bhola's seven upazilas, and fallow land is shrinking. In the rabi season the amount of fallow land has fallen to near zero. Farmers say they are turning to more cultivation than before with government support.

A visit to the area found farmers growing aman rice and various vegetables this season. Some have already begun selling vegetables, and the rice will be ready to harvest soon. As it is the monsoon, many farmers have grown vegetables using pyramid and trellis methods because of waterlogging. Uncultivated fallow land is hard to find in the district.

According to the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) in Bhola, the seven upazilas have 192,382 hectares of farmland. Since 2024-25, vegetables, wheat, mustard, soybean and other crops have been grown on all of it in the rabi season. In Kharif-1 last season, 75,002 hectares were cultivated, 3,000 hectares more than the season before. In Kharif-2 last season, 187,882 hectares were cultivated, about 5,000 hectares more than the season before.

Md Bazlul, a farmer in Char Bheduria village of Bheduria union in Bhola Sadar upazila, said his father and grandfather were farmers and he has been farming for about 35 years, supporting his family by it. In past years he grew rice in the Kharif-1 and Kharif-2 seasons and did nothing in the rabi season. For several years the agriculture office offered him demonstrations and incentives for the rabi season, but he did not accept, so the land lay empty in rabi. Since last year, with help from the agriculture office, he has grown vegetables and mustard in different seasons with success, and this year he plans to farm more land in the rabi season.

Md Monir Hosen, a farmer in Madanpur village of Madanpur union in Daulatkhan upazila, said: "Every year I grow vegetables, mustard and wheat in the rabi season. In Kharif-1 and 2 the land used to lie empty. But last year I got rice seed, fertiliser and pesticide from the agriculture office through the government and did well from growing rice. So this season I have grown aman rice on more land." He says leaving land empty in the past caused losses, and in future he will grow aus and aman rice even if the agriculture office gives no help.

Md Sohag, a farmer in Char Gangapur village of Sachra union in Burhanuddin upazila, said he has been farming for about 20 years. He used to grow aus and aman rice on about 8 acres and mustard, wheat and maize on 3 acres in the rabi season. After good profits in recent years he farmed 6 acres last year, and this year he says he will farm his own 8 acres plus some sharecropped land.

Md Sahabaddin, a farmer in Madraj village of Char Madraj union in Char Fasson upazila, said he farms about 15 acres every year. Because of severe waterlogging on his land in the monsoon, he could not grow aus and aman rice on more than 6 acres. This year, alongside rice, he has raised the land on 5 acres and is growing vegetables on trellises. The vegetables have yielded well and he has begun selling them.

Nazrul Islam, a farmer in Amenabad union of the same upazila, said that although he has about 13 acres, he cannot farm it in the Kharif-1 season, and in Kharif-2 he can grow aman rice on 7 to 8 acres. In the rabi season he grows vegetables, wheat, mustard, soybean and other crops on all of it.

Md Khairul Islam Mollik, deputy director of the DAE in Bhola, said the district's seven upazilas have 428,701 small, medium and large farmers, and the district's total land is 192,382 hectares. In the 2024-25 rabi season no land in the district lay empty.

He added, however, that in Kharif-1, 117,380 hectares lay empty because of intense sun, severe drought, salinity and irrigation problems, and 4,500 hectares lay empty in Kharif-2 because of severe waterlogging. But no land will be empty in the current rabi season, and much more land than before will be farmed in Kharif-1 and 2. Farmers will be given every kind of support for this, he said.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.