Intense cold and fog have damaged boro rice seedbeds on about 20,000 hectares of land in five districts of the country's central region (the proposed Padma division), leaving farmers worried about production.

On-the-spot visits found that after a month of average temperatures of about 10 degrees Celsius and dense fog, the leaves of seedlings in most seedbeds in Madaripur, Gopalganj, Shariatpur, Faridpur and Rajbari have turned yellow. In some places every seedling in the seedbed has died.

"I will plant boro rice on 7 bighas this time, but the seedbed I prepared has been ruined by the extreme cold and fog," said Sushanta Mallick, a farmer in Ramshil union of Kotalipara, Gopalganj. "If I now buy boro seedlings to plant, it will cost me a lot more money, yet the price I get for paddy in the market is very low." He fears that planting the damaged seedlings could also cut yields sharply.

Premananda Baroi, a farmer in Rajoir upazila of Madaripur, said he had prepared a seedbed for about three bighas of land and all its seedlings have died.

"None of us has any control over the weather," said Abdul Kader, additional deputy director (crops) of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) in Gopalganj. "But we are advising farmers on how to overcome the damage to seedbeds."

GAM Gafur, deputy director of the DAE in Madaripur, said: "The cold and fog have caused some damage to boro seedbeds. But once the seedlings are transplanted, we hope there will not be much of a problem with rice production."

Source: Dhaka Tribune. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.