A nor'wester and half an hour of hail have flattened Boro paddy fields in Jashore. The storm on the afternoon of Monday (28 April) left farmers in despair. Paddy cut and left in the fields went under water, and most of the uncut crop shed its grain under the hail.

The Meteorological Department and local farmers said that after two weeks of severe and moderate heatwave, the sky was covered with black clouds at about 3pm on Monday, followed by gusty winds. Soon hail began with a 180-kilometre nor'wester. At one stage the rain eased but hail kept falling heavily. The long spell of hail has reportedly caused irreparable damage to the maturing Boro crop in Jashore.

The worst damage was reported in Chaugachha, Sadar and Bagharpara upazilas. With the paddy hit by hail at the last stage, thousands of farmers are in despair. Officials of the district Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) said the extent of the damage could not yet be assessed.

Toniraj, a farmer of Singhajhuli Mathpara in Chaugachha, said only the stalks are standing in his field; all the grain has fallen from the panicles to the ground. "I grew paddy on two bighas. I had cut 15 kathas; 25 kathas are still uncut. After the hail I went to the field and found not a single grain."

Shahinur Rahman Shahin, a farmer of the same village, said: "I grew paddy on 11 bighas this year. Four bighas were not cut, and I had cut one and a half bighas and left them in the field. All the paddy is gone. What was not cut has all shed." He claimed losses of more than Tk 3.5 lakh.

Local farmers said fields in Singhajhuli, Balidapara, Jhautala, Jamalta, Jagannathpur and Koyarpara suffered extensive damage, with Basmati paddy on 2,000 to 3,000 hectares in these areas the worst hit. In most fields, Basmati and Miniket paddy has shed all its grain.

Paddy in the fields of Pachnamna, Ichhapur, Tarinibas, Kangsharipur and Swarupdaha in the municipal area, and Laskarpur, Pitambarpur and Manmathapur in Chaugachha Sadar union, was also damaged. Not only paddy: patal (pointed gourd), taro and other vegetables, and mangoes and lychees in these fields were badly damaged.

Mosharraf Hossain, deputy director of the district DAE, said Chaugachha was the worst hit in Jashore by the sudden hail, with 70 to 80 per cent of the paddy in the fields damaged.

He said paddy was grown on 157,050 hectares this year, and 51 per cent had been harvested by Monday. Farmers are being advised to drain water from fields where cut paddy is lying. The weather is expected to improve from tomorrow, and he also advised cutting ripe paddy quickly.

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