Excessive rain in Nilphamari is damaging aman rice and winter vegetables. Though yields had been as expected, the crops have been beaten into the mud by the rainwater, raising doubts about whether farmers can bring home the harvest they hoped for.

Jaldhaka upazila agriculture officer Shahadat Hossain said winter vegetables are expensive in the market. No one has control over nature, he said; what is happening now is natural damage caused by climate change. He feared the prices of paddy, rice and winter vegetables would rise further.

Affected farmers Md Sabbir of Golmunda village and Shakil of Hajirpara in Jaldhaka upazila said the extent of the crop damage can be measured once the rainwater standing in the fields drains away. But a third of what had been grown has already been ruined in the fields.

Abu Bakkar Siddique, deputy director of the agriculture department in Nilphamari, said about 35 hectares of paddy and 38 hectares of seasonal vegetables have been damaged in the district this time. Upazila agriculture officers and field staff are trying to assess the extent of the losses.

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