Boro harvest brings smile to haor farmers

Two years ago, flashfloods in the haor region during the boro season ruined all the paddy Moti Miah grown on his seven bigas of land that forced him to mortgage all his lands to a local broker at Tk 2,50,000.

He reinvested the amount and cultivated boro paddy on 26 bighas of land in the past two years and got a yield of 400 maunds of rice.

With the proceedings, Moti Miah paid off his mortgage, paid dues of rice mill and still he has 300 maunds of rice in stock.

“I’m happy,” said Moti Miah of Ujanganj in Shalla of Sunamganj while harvesting his crop. “I hope to repay all my loans with my harvest this year.”

Not only Moti Miah, many other farmers of the haor region are happy with this year’s harvest, where paddy is the main crop and sole source of their livelihood. Harvesting paddy started in mid-April and will continue till the end of August.

Besides, the region’s vast haor tract has produced good yields, much to the delight of locals. Farmers began to harvest paddy as early as possible this season (December- April) anticipating natural calamities such as flashfloods.

This years’ harvest is good and the price of paddy is high, said the farmers of the haor area. “We hope to have a good profit this year and will be able to repay our loans, said Asim Kumar Das, a farmer of Ronarchar in Dirai in Sunamganj.

Cultivating paddy in haor region is relatively tough that other areas as vast farmland go underwater during monsoon and there remain frequent pest attacks.

During a visit to the haor areas, it was seen that farmers were passing busy times in reaping and storing the paddy from dawn to dusk. Some of them— who already harvested and sold off their crops — were busy repairing their homes and some were building new ones with the profit they made this year.

“Suitable climate conditions alongside proper rainfall during the season ensured high yield and good prices of paddy,” said Sunamganj Deputy Comissioner Md Jahangir Hossain.

Now is the perfect time to harvest paddy and so, farms are busy to get the job done in time, he said.

According to the Department of Agricultural Extension in Sunamganj, there are 3,78,705 farming families in Sunamganj who mainly cultivate paddy.

Last season the farmers were able to produce 13,52,221 tonnes of borro paddy against a target of 13,27,843 tonnes from 2,23,300 hectares of land and earned Tk 3,651 crore.

Boro paddy was sold at Tk 1,080 per maund last year, the DAE sources said.

Golam Sarwar Liton, headmaster of Sohla Government Primary School and a resident of Madhyatahirpur in Shanir Haor of Sunamganj’s Tahirpur, said, “Farmers in haor region are now least interested to cultivate paddy on the basis of sharing crop. They prefer to rent land now”

As the past two year’s harvest was good, it made farmers interested to cultivate boro, he said

Faridul Hasan, Deputy Director of Sunamganj DAE, said, ‘The main agricultural economy of Sunamganj is seeing a boon with the bumper yield of boro in the past two years.”