Aman seed crisis in Barguna puts cultivation at stake

Waterlogging caused by continuous rains in Barguna has damaged aman seedbeds, creating an acute crisis of seeds in the district.

Farmers have prepared their farmlands for cultivation but the fields remain empty due to seed shortage. This crisis is causing distress for the paddy growers as they are frustrated over earning their livelihood.

Department of Agricultural Extention (DAE) sources said they will fail to meet this year’s targets of Aman production in the coastal district.

Farmers said that those few seedbeds that were prepared on comparatively higher grounds remained unaffected by rainwater. These seeds are being sold at a rate of Tk 200 per kg. Alongside being pricey, there are not enough seeds to meet the demand. As a result, much of the agricultural land in Barguna will remain uncultivated this year.

According to Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) Barguna, 477mm of rainfall had been recorded in the last week of July. Besides, another 100mm of rainfall drenched the coastal district throughout August. Rising levels of water caused by these two bouts of rain have submerged most of the Aman seedbeds of the district.

DAE sources said the government had targeted the cultivation of hybrid, high-yielding and local variants of Aman Paddy in a total of 98.008 lakh hectares of land this year, which will be missed if the ongoing seed crisis persists.

Among this, 25,400 hectares in Barguna Sadar, 23,371 hectares in Amtali, 16,230 hectares in Taltali, 10,692 hectares in Betagi, 5,330 hectares in Bamna, and 16,827 hectares in Pathorghata upazila were under the aman cultivation target.

According to DAE sources, aman is the primary crop for the coastal people. The DAE assists the farmers by providing different varieties of BR, BRRI and BINA paddy seeds.

Among the total cultivable land in Barguna, variants these hybrid aman variants are produced in 55 per cent of the land while the local variant is cultivated in the remaining 45 per cent of the land.

Abu Hossain Hawlader, a farmer from Khajurtala village in Barguna Sadar, expressed his disappointment in not being able to cultivate paddy this year.

“I had prepared seedbeds on two acres of land. The water in the fields has ebbed after the heavy rain but all the seeds have rotten,” he said adding that there is not enough time to prepare new seedbeds so he will leave the land uncultivated.

Abdul Jabbar Mridha, a farmer of Kaunia village of Chawra union, said he could not cultivate his field since the seedbeds he prepared had rotted from waterlogging.

Aman paddy farmers of Pathorghata, Betagi, Bamna upazila expressed similar distress.

Abu Sayed Md Jobaydul Alam, Deputy Director of DAE Barguna, said, “Excessive rainfall is a natural calamity and we are helpless against it. We tried to deal with the situation by supplying seeds to the farmers and advising them to choose high grounds for preparing the seedbeds.”

He added that they are trying their utmost to recover from this situation but the target for aman production will not be met in the district this year.