Three ministers joined a boro paddy harvest festival at Dekhar Haor in Sunamganj on Wednesday (19 April) afternoon and cut paddy together. They were Agriculture Minister Abdur Razzaque, Planning Minister M A Mannan and Deputy Minister Enamul Haque Shamim.

The agriculture minister said farmers work very hard to grow paddy in the haors, but early floods often submerge the crop before it can be brought home. "It feels very good to come to the haor this year and see the boro yield. Some 30 percent of the haor paddy has already been harvested. Farmers will gain a lot from the price that has been set for paddy this year," he said.

"In a year when the haor crop succeeds, people across the country can eat. In a year when the haor paddy goes under, a food crisis follows. This time the haor paddy will be home before the flood. Already 1,000 harvesting machines are cutting paddy in the haor," the minister said.

Planning Minister M A Mannan said no more roads would be built in the haor wetlands, though there would be an elevated road, work on which has already begun.

"It is not possible to bring home haor paddy by fighting nature. We have to adapt to nature. There will be no more earthen embankments in the haor," he said. A plan has been taken up to use scientific research to cut the crop's duration from 120 days to 100 days. "We hope to succeed in this, so that farmers can bring the haor paddy home even before the early floods arrive," he said.

Also present were Deputy Minister for Water Resources Enamul Haque Shamim, Sunamganj-4 MP Advocate Pir Fazlur Rahman Misbah, Deputy Commissioner Didare Alam Mohammad Maksud Chowdhury and Superintendent of Police Ehsan Shah.

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