Two days of continuous rain have submerged 1,886 hectares of paddy and vegetable land in Kishoreganj. Of this, 1,620 hectares are under transplanted Aman paddy and 266 hectares under vegetables, leaving the district's farmers facing serious losses.

Md Abdus Sattar, deputy director of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) in Kishoreganj, confirmed the figures at about 8:45pm on 6 October.

According to the DAE in Kishoreganj, transplanted Aman has been grown on 84,500 hectares in the district this season, and vegetables on 10,100 hectares. The two days of heavy rain have flooded 1,620 hectares of Aman and 266 hectares of vegetables. Most of the flooded vegetable land is in Pakundia, Bajitpur and Hossainpur upazilas, while most of the submerged Aman is in Katiadi upazila.

Sadek Pathan, a farmer of Kashorarchar village in Kishoreganj Sadar upazila, said: "One acre of my paddy land has gone under water. If the water recedes quickly, the damage may be less. Otherwise everything will be lost."

Pathan, another farmer from the same area, said his garden of bottle gourd and pumpkin had gone under water and he feared the plants would be ruined.

Tajul Islam, a farmer of Porabaria village in Pakundia upazila, said about 500 acres of paddy land in the fields in front of and behind their homes had been flooded. "If there is no more rain and the water drains away, the damage may be less. If the water stays on the land, all the paddy will be ruined," he said.

DAE deputy director Md Abdus Sattar said that if the water stays on the land for two or three days, the damage to transplanted Aman and vegetable land will be considerable; if there is no more rain and the water recedes, the losses will be somewhat smaller. "We will make a list of affected farmers, verify it and send it to the ministry. If an allocation comes, the farmers will be rehabilitated through the upazila committees," he said.

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