Brown planthopper, known locally as "current poka", is attacking this season's aman paddy in Mirsarai, Chattogram, leaving many farmers at a loss. Sub-assistant agriculture officers are accused of not going into the field to control the pest and advise farmers, though agriculture officials deny the allegation.

According to the upazila agriculture office, the target for aman this season across the upazila's 16 unions and two municipalities was 26,000 hectares, but 19,775 hectares were planted. The largest area, nearly 2,000 hectares, was in No 6 Ichhakhali union. The smallest was in No 4 Dhum union, where about 1,000 hectares were planted this year.

Rezaul Karim Chowdhury Humayun, chairman of No 7 Katachhara union parishad, said: "I come from a farming family. This year too I have grown aman on about three acres on Ichhakhali char. For some days now I have seen brown planthopper attacking the fields. The tops of the panicles look as if they have been burnt. The rain did not come on time this year, and diesel is expensive, so farmers had to spend extra money to grow aman. Now they are at a loss because of the planthopper. Unless action is taken soon, they will suffer losses."

He also alleged that the upazila's 16 unions and two municipalities have 36 sub-assistant agriculture officers, but they do not go into the field. "Despite my informing them many times, they have not been seen," he said.

Kazi Nurul Alam, Mirsarai upazila sub-assistant agriculture officer, said brown planthopper had attacked aman fields in various areas, but not on very much land. "We are continuing to advise farmers on protecting their crops from the attack," he said. He added that the upazila is very large and its unions are large too, and claimed that the sub-assistant officers in charge of the unions regularly supervise in the field and advise farmers.

Engineer Mosharraf Hossain, MP for Mirsarai and a former minister, is extremely angry with the sub-assistant agriculture officers working there. "There are 36 sub-assistant agriculture officers. Their work is in the field, but instead of going to the field they sit in the office and draw their salaries," he said. He has instructed the chairman of every union to take account of the agriculture officers' union-level work from this November.

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