Irrigation has been inaugurated at the Meghna-Dhonagoda irrigation project, the second largest in the country. The Kalipur and Udamdi pumps in the upazila were started on the morning of Monday, 20 January, but after a photo session the authorities switched the pumps off. Although irrigation has been inaugurated, farmers will get water only from 25 January.

Md Salauddin, sub-divisional engineer (civil) of the Meghna-Dhonagoda O&M division, inaugurated irrigation at the project's Kalipur pump house at 11am on Monday. The event was presided over by Russell Faiz Ahmed Shaheen Chowdhury, president of the Meghna-Dhonagoda irrigation project. Also present were businessman Jafril Chowdhury, businessman Liaquat Ali Khoka Chowdhury, Meghna-Dhonagoda O&M division branch officer Rishi Bhowmik, assistant engineer Siam Ali, extension overseers Md Zahirul Haque Chowdhury and Md Mosleh Uddin Sarkar, upazila Jubo Dal joint convener Al Mamun, upazila Jubo Dal member Faiz Member, and presidents and general secretaries of various groups.

Water was inaugurated at the project's Udamdi pump house at the same time. The Udamdi pump ran for 10 minutes after inauguration, but at the Kalipur pump house the authorities switched it off just 13 seconds after the inauguration, leaving farmers even more worried.

Meghna-Dhonagoda is the country's second largest irrigation project. Construction began in the 1979–80 fiscal year to increase agricultural production on 17,584 hectares in the upazila and was completed in 1987–88. Producing Boro rice through irrigation was the main goal, but farmers have never received irrigation at the start of the Boro season. As a result, Boro production targets have not been met in most seasons since the project was built.

According to the upazila Department of Agricultural Extension, 15 to 30 November is the right time to prepare seedbeds, and Boro seedlings should be transplanted from 15 December. Seedlings must be transplanted when they are 21 to 40 days old; beyond 40 days, yields start to fall.

By that reckoning, seedlings from seedbeds prepared on 15 November would be 40 days old on 25 December. Almost a month has passed since then, yet farmers have still not been able to transplant for lack of irrigation.

The Boro target for Matlab Uttar upazila this season is 9,984 hectares. Farmers prepared seedbeds with this target in mind but have not received irrigation. Meanwhile their seedlings keep ageing, and many are more than 60 days old. Farmers fear a disaster in Boro production because water was not supplied on time.

On the ground, block construction was still unfinished at various points along the project's canals, and cleaning of rubbish was under way in many places. At Amiyapur, Dewanjikandi and a few other places in the project area, culverts were being built with the irrigation canal dammed.

Farmers Khokon Sarkar and Ataur Rahman said: "We don't know when they will give water. Our seedlings in the seedbeds are growing too big. If we can't transplant on time, we won't get a good crop and we will make a loss. We can't plant rice because there is no water."

They said the alternative, watering the fields with shallow-engine pumps to transplant seedlings, costs a lot, and the water in canals and beels has also dried up.

Upazila agriculture officer Faisal Mohammad Ali said that if water cannot be supplied to the irrigation canals on time, there could be concerns about meeting the Boro season target.

Faiz Ahmed Shaheen Chowdhury, president of the Meghna-Dhonagoda irrigation project, said water could not be released because of certain constraints, but irrigation has been inaugurated and water will be released in full from 25 January.

Salauddin, sub-divisional executive officer of the Meghna-Dhonagoda irrigation project, said: "We have inaugurated irrigation. After checking whether there are problems anywhere in the canal and looking at the state of cultivation, water will be supplied in full very soon."

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