Blast disease has broken out in boro paddy in Habiganj. The disease has ruined BRRI dhan28 paddy across wide areas of the haors. At harvest, farmers are finding no rice in the grains, only husks, and the plants and grains have turned white. Having lost everything, farmers are now struggling to keep their families going.

Visits to several haors found that BRRI dhan28 is a fairly slender paddy with slender, tasty rice and a good yield of at least 20 maunds a bigha. It can also be harvested earlier than other varieties, so natural disasters do little damage to it, and it fetches a higher price at market. That is why farmers are keen on it.

Wide areas of Habiganj Sadar, Lakhai, Baniachong, Ajmiriganj, Nabiganj and Madhabpur upazilas are surrounded by haors. Almost everyone in the haor areas depends on farming, some on their own land and some on land they rent as sharecroppers.

This year boro has been grown on 1,22,575 hectares in the district, and farmers planted BRRI dhan28 on a large part of the haors. But this season the disease appeared at harvest time. Blast has ruined paddy in haor after haor. The plants and grains have turned white, with nothing inside, only husk. There is now no use for it except as fuel.

Md Taher Hossain, a farmer from Lukra village in Sadar upazila, has no land of his own and grows crops on land he rents for cash. This year he rented 3 bighas, and now he has lost everything.

He broke down in tears as he spoke. He told Jago News: "I am a sick man. I farmed 3 bighas, and not a single grain of paddy grew on any of it. How will I keep my family going?"

A farmer named Md Farid Uddin told Jago News that paddy on about 2,000 bighas of land in their haor had been ruined. It cannot even be fed to cattle, as cows will not eat it, and there is nothing to do but cut it and burn it.

Another farmer, Md Joad Ali, said: "Ninety-five per cent of us plant BRRI dhan28 in the haor. It gives a good yield. This time we did not get even 1 per cent. Everything is ruined. We cannot think how we will find food now."

District agricultural extension officer Md Nure Alam Siddiqui told Jago News that the district's weather had been generally good, but 15 to 20 days earlier the daytime temperature suddenly rose to 32-33 degrees while nights turned cold. This brought on blast in BRRI dhan28. After being informed by the upazilas, steps were taken at once to prevent and treat the disease with either of two fungicides, Nativo or Tropper, he said.

He said haor farmers do not give the crop much care after planting; they only come back to harvest it. So far, blast has destroyed paddy on 50 to 60 hectares in the district, he said.

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