Two days of continuous heavy rain and run-off from the hills have submerged boro paddy in Moulvibazar. With low-lying land flooded both in the haors and in other parts of the district, farmers who could not bring their crop home are in despair.

Farmers said the rain had caused waterlogging and an early flood in many areas, inundating the haors and the district's low-lying land. Many farmers were distraught at being unable to harvest their ripe boro paddy.

According to the district office of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), boro paddy was grown on 62,400 hectares in the district this season, 27,355 hectares of it in haor areas. About 77 per cent of the haor paddy has been harvested; the rest of the boro area lies outside the haors.

In Kewlar haor at Patanushar in Kamalganj upazila, run-off and rain flooded low-lying land quickly from the previous night, and nearly a thousand hectares of boro paddy went under water. Paddy was also submerged in the haor areas and low-lying land of Rajnagar, Kulaura and Sadar upazilas.

Anwar Khan, a farmer in Kewlar haor, said all the paddy in the haor went under water just at harvest time. "Many farmers took loans to grow this paddy. How will they repay them? We never thought the sudden rain would cause us so much damage," he said.

Juned Mia, a farmer in Hajipur union of Kulaura upazila, said: "Everything is gone for us. I grew boro on a loan. Today it has all drowned. My luck is simply bad."

The Srimangal weather observatory said 189 millimetres of rain had fallen in the region in the 24 hours to noon, and that rain would continue until 2 May.

Md Jalal Uddin, deputy director of the DAE in Moulvibazar, said the harvest in the haor areas was nearly over. "Seeing the weather forecast, we had been telling farmers for several days to cut their paddy quickly. Low-lying land has flooded and boro paddy has gone under water, but how much has been submerged is not yet known," he said.

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