Time seems to be turning against the farmers of Sunamganj's haor region. Having got past heavy rain and the fear of lightning, just as farmers were dreaming of bringing the paddy home, the threat of an early flood has emerged as a new danger. With rivers rising fast, worried farmers are cutting and bringing home half-ripe paddy for fear of losing their crop.

Local sources say Sunamganj's farmers have faced one setback after another this season. Harvesting in the haors was disrupted by waterlogging, which the report dates from the start of May, and by the deaths of five farmers from lightning on 18 April. Before that had passed, the main rivers, including the Surma, Kushiyara and Boulai, began to rise, spreading fear of floods across the haors.

The Sunamganj office of the Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) said 34 mm of rain was recorded in the district in the previous 24 hours. With heavy rain continuing in Cherrapunji in India, hill runoff from upstream had raised the Surma by 54 cm, and it was flowing just 2 cm below the danger mark.

A special BWDB notice said rivers in the north-east could rise faster over the next few days, which could cause an early flood.

According to the district agriculture office, Boro paddy was grown on 223,100 hectares in Sunamganj this season, but so far farmers have harvested only 28,000 hectares.

Haor farmers Junab Ali and Shukur Ali said most of the paddy has not yet fully ripened, but with the river rising the way it is, they are forced to cut half-ripe paddy for fear of the crop going under.

Farmer Salman Mia said: "The paddy is still half-green, but we are cutting it out of fear of flooding. If everything goes under now, we farmers will be completely finished."

Mamun Howlader, executive engineer of the BWDB, said farmers have been asked to cut haor paddy as soon as 80 per cent of it ripens, because hill runoff could cause a flood in the district.

Omar Faruk, deputy director of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) in Sunamganj, said paddy on 28,000 hectares of haor land had already been harvested, and all agriculture department officers were working in the field to help farmers.

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