With no rain at the height of the season, farmers in Mirsarai upazila of Chattogram are in trouble over aman cultivation. They are deeply worried about whether they will be able to grow aman at all this year, and are counting every moment as they wait for rain.
Farmers mainly rely on rainwater to grow transplanted aman during the monsoon. But July has ended and August has come with no sign of rain, leaving aman growers in great difficulty. Far from planting, most farmers have not even been able to prepare their land. As the seasonal rains have failed because of climate change, the upazila agriculture office is advising farmers to pump groundwater to prepare their fields.
Cracked fields, rising costs
Md Mosharraf Hossain, a farmer from Raipur village in Durgapur union, said he grows paddy on about one acre every aman season, but for the past two or three years the lack of seasonal rain has hit transplanted aman production. He has not yet been able to prepare his land this season, and most farmers in his area are worried, even though this is the peak season for transplanted aman.
In the fields, the land has cracked in the intense heat and drought, and in places the aman seedlings have been scorched and discoloured. Production costs have gone up with higher prices for ploughing, labour, fuel, fertiliser and pesticide. A few farmers are planting paddy by irrigating with machines, but the land dries out again as soon as it is watered.
Babul Bhowmik of Wahedpur union, Abdus Salam of Saherkhali union and many others said that with no rain this year they have to irrigate their land with shallow machines and electric motors.
A quarter of target planted
According to the upazila agriculture office, the target for this aman season is 19,775 hectares, and paddy has been planted on a quarter of the target area so far.
Kazi Nurul Alam, sub-assistant agriculture officer of Mirsarai upazila, said aman cultivation usually begins in the first week of July and planting ends in late August. But with no rain, even though July has ended and August has begun, aman has not been planted on even two quarters of the target land.
He said he hoped that once the rain starts, aman planting would be finished within 15 to 20 days. Efforts are being made to meet the target through irrigation in some areas.
Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.
Comments
(0)