Three-crop farmland in Raninagar, Naogaon, is being turned into ponds to supply soil to brick kilns, and farmland in the upazila is shrinking at an alarming rate. Lured by a group of traders, farmers are becoming keen to sell the soil of their cropland instead of farming it.

In Mirat union, a frenzy of pond digging is under way on most farmland, with machines digging 8 feet deep. Ponds are dug day and night without a break, and the soil is supplied to brick kilns in Raninagar and Atrai upazilas and in Santahar, in Adamdighi upazila of Bogura district. Without understanding the consequences, farmers are losing their cropland while unscrupulous "pond traders" grow rich overnight. Alongside privately owned land, even government land listed under Khatian No 1 is not spared by these pond grabbers.

According to the upazila land office, the upazila's eight unions have about 21,500 hectares of cropland, excluding rivers, canals and beels. Almost all of it, depending on its type, produces some crop or other throughout the year. Because farm input prices have risen and farmers do not get a fair price for their rice, ponds are being dug on cropland under contracts of five to ten years at Tk 12,000 a bigha. The pond traders sell the soil to brick kilns at Tk 700 a vehicle (tractor load).

With ponds dug freely on cultivated land in disregard of land law, cropland is shrinking day by day, while farmers on neighbouring plots face various problems that hamper rice planting. Some are forced to go to the pond grabbers themselves, and others leave their land fallow. The agriculture department fears boro cultivation will fall by about 600 hectares this season as a result. Pond digging is seen in several unions, but it is most pronounced in Mirat union, at the places known as No 1 and No 2 sluice gates in Ayapur and Ataikula mouzas. More than 50 ponds have already been dug in Mirat union alone.

"Because excavator machines are cutting soil from farmland to dig ponds, there is a risk that drainage will be blocked, and boro rice may not be grown this season on a good deal of land in Ataikula mouza of Mirat union. We have been going from house to house advising farmers not to dig ponds. But along with raising farmers' awareness, legal action must be taken quickly," said upazila agriculture officer and agriculturist Shahidul Islam.

Upazila nirbahi officer Al Mamun said: "Legal action will be taken against them quickly."

Source: Dhaka Tribune. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.