Hakimpur is an upazila on the border, and the paddy-cutting festival has already begun there. Labourers are cutting the paddy in exchange for the straw rather than wages, which pleases both workers and landowners. Once the harvest is over, farmers will prepare the land for early potato varieties.

According to the upazila agriculture office, aman paddy has been grown on 8,117 hectares in the upazila this year (the Bengali text gives the figure as "eight thousand 117 thousand hectares"). The early Jatabari paddy has been planted on 2,000 hectares, and this year's potato target for the area has been set at 1,015 hectares.

Farmers in several fields of Hili grow early potatoes, especially in the Madhabpara field on the bank of a branch of the Jamuna river in Khattamadhabpara union. Every household in the area is now busy with the harvest. Locals have named this paddy Jatabari.

Zahid Iqbal Rana, a farmer in Madhabpara, told Jago News: "We have been growing Jatabari paddy in this area for about 20 years. This time I planted it on six bighas. The yield was 16-18 maunds a bigha, and I sold the paddy at Tk 950-1,000 a maund. This way our fields grow three crops."

Habibar Rahman of the same area said: "I planted Jatabari paddy on 18 bighas this year. The yield in the field is good, and I have sold paddy worth about Tk 3 lakh. I did not have to pay the labourers any wages. They cut the paddy in exchange for the green straw."

Farm labourer Dablu said: "Ten of us from the village have formed a team to cut people's Jatabari paddy. In exchange we take the green straw and sell it at the market. The income keeps our families going quite well."

Another labourer, Kazem Hossain from Birampur, said: "There is little work in our area at the moment, so we have come here to cut paddy. We sell the paddy plants we take from the farmers at Tk 300 per hundred at the market. Each bigha yields about 1,500 to 1,600 bundles of green stalks, so the straw from a bigha sells for about Tk 4,500."

Another farmer, Imran Hossain, said: "Many people here planted Jatabari, but I planted hybrid paddy. It has started to ripen, but because the weather has not been favourable, various diseases have appeared. I will have to take quite a loss on paddy this time."

Hakimpur upazila agriculture officer Arjina Begum said early Jatabari paddy is grown in several fields of the upazila, and after harvesting it farmers plant potatoes on the same land. Jatabari is a name given by locals; this paddy is grown mostly in haor areas.

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