As the Padma recedes at Lalpur in Natore, the damage to crops on the chars is coming into view. Crops on more than 3,500 bighas across eight chars of Bilmaria union were submerged, with losses estimated at more than Tk 6 million. On Wednesday the upazila agriculture office formally sent the damage assessment to the government, Samakal reports.
According to the upazila administration and agriculture office, a sudden surge from upstream between 10 and 13 September pushed the Padma dangerously high and flooded eight chars including Naushara Sultanpur, Diar Shankarpur, Chakla Binodpur and Rasulpur. More than 400 families on the chars were stranded and the crops of 1,300 farmers went under water.
Jamir Ali of Nagshosha village had spent about Tk 300,000 planting bananas on 10 bighas of the Ilishmari char. Just as the trees began to fruit, the flash flood rotted everything; he puts his loss at about Tk 1 million. To farm again, he says, he has no choice but to borrow from an NGO at high interest.
Muntaj Ali, another farmer from the area, had good crops of ash gourd on three bighas and pointed gourd and radish on two. The flood rotted them all, a loss of about Tk 300,000, and without government help he cannot plant a new crop, he said.
Upazila agriculture officer Pritom Kumar Hore said that although crops on about 3,500 bighas were submerged, they were destroyed outright on 116 bighas; the preliminary loss is about Tk 6 million. A list of affected farmers has been sent to higher authorities, and any rabi-season incentive or special support will be distributed quickly. To make up the loss, farmers are being advised to grow early winter vegetables, he said.
Photo: Mamun7291 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Source: Samakal
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