CropsFarmers on 16,000 hectares of aman in Koyra, Khulna, cannot get enough urea; the upazila agriculture officer says the allocation is below need and has asked for an extra sub-allocation.
CropsGrowing aman rice on a bigha in Jashore now costs Tk 18,000-21,000 against Tk 15,000-18,000 last year, while paddy sells at about Tk 1,050 a maund, farmers and extension officials told Prothom Alo.
CropsRecent rain has eased drought and irrigation costs in aman fields of Charghat and Raninagar; Raninagar planted about 18,500 hectares against a target of 19,070.
CropsAman was planted on 46,774 hectares against a target of 46,772; high-yielding varieties fell 246 hectares short while local varieties exceeded their target by 248.
Dinajpur's aman crop covers 273,750 hectares against a target of 272,270; the district aims for about 8 lakh tonnes of rice, with early varieties to be harvested from mid-Kartik.
Once bamboo fences and nets were removed from the Kata canal at Komorpur in Keshabpur, Jashore, water drained from Padma beel and nearby beels, saving 600 bighas of aman; 4,000 metres of banned China duari nets were seized.
Lalmonirhat Sadar's agriculture office sets light traps, a lamp over a pan of soapy or kerosene water, across nine unions and the municipality every week and advises spraying only after counting the pests caught.
CropsAt the height of the transplanted aman season in Tarash, Sirajganj, farmers say they cannot get fertiliser at the government price; a dealer's store held about 1,000 sacks while farmers paid Tk 300 to 600 extra a sack.
Darul Islam, a farmer in Fulbaria, Mymensingh, builds rat traps from bamboo, jute rope and discarded bicycle or rickshaw tubes; after catching about 300 rats on his 10 kathas in the Aus season, he sells them at Tk 100 each and neighbours are using them in Aman fields.
In Fulbari, Dinajpur, early Aman yields 18-22 maunds a bigha, but at Tk 750-900 a maund farmers are not recovering their costs; paddy has fallen Tk 200-300 a maund in ten days.
A tenant farmer in Ruhia, Thakurgaon, says his seven bighas of rice began rotting and turning red the day after he sprayed several pesticides a local dealer supplied.
With little rain mid-season, upland transplanted Aman needs regular irrigation, but the diesel price rise has left many Jamalpur farmers unable to water as needed, and they fear lower yields.
In Ballaverkhas union the two-month-old Aman crop has gone without a single top-dressing; dealers have no urea and retailers sell at a premium, farmers allege a syndicate, the extension officer says the allocation fell short of the area planted.
