Aman shortfall feared in northern region

Farmers in the districts of Rangpur division might not achieve their target of aman production this year for late transplantation owing to an unprecedented heat wave during the farming season.

According to local sources, paddy growers in Rangpur are facing difficulties in transplanting T-aman seedlings after the region saw little rain during Ashar and Srabon– the months making up the monsoon season.

Senior Agriculture and Environment Coordinator of RDRS Bangladesh, Mamunur Rashid said aman cultivation depends on seasonal rainfall. Farmers faced severe difficulties in transplanting the lands on time as seedbeds got damaged.

He recommended that the farmers be provided cash incentives in addition to the government subsidy being provided to them for minimising paddy production cost.

Rashid’s recommendation falls in line with calls from farmers who are facing with rising prices of agricultural inputs, including diesel, fertilisers and insecticides.

Many farmers said they will have to incur losses if they do not get a reasonable price for the crop. They demanded reasonable prices to minimise the increased production cost of the crop.

Afzal Miah, 65, a farmer at Imadpur village under Mithapukur upazila of Rangpur district said he planned to cultivate T- aman paddy on twelve bighas of land this year but he managed somehow to cultivate ten bighas of land.

He had to buy additional seedlings as his seedbeds got damaged. Lack of rain made the transplanted lands unfertile for paddies to grow. He had to irrigate the lands several times by hiring shallow-machine that cost him extra.

The farmers will have to incur losses in farming unless a reasonable price of paddy is ensured by the government, he said.

A farmer, Saju Miah, 40, of Godha village under Kishoreganj upazila of Nilphamari district said he cultivated aman paddy on some four bighas of land despite a huge shortage of rainfall this year.

It is not possible for him to cultivate paddy if he does not get water supply at a cheaper rate.

Meanwhile, a section of farmers under the Rehabilitation and Expansion of Command Area of Teesta Irrigation Project in the region were able to cultivate the crop on time despite facing a drought-like situation.

According to Bangladesh Water development Board, Dalia Teesta irrigation, rehabilitation and expansion project sources, some 6 lakh farmers of twelve upazilas under three districts- Rangpur, Nilphamari and Dinajpur– were enrolled to avail of the supplementary irrigation facilities. They received enough water supplies for transplanting ropa aman amid the inclement weather in their lands which helped them to save a huge amount of fuel costs worth around Tk 40 crore this year.

Amid the price spiral backdrop, a farmer has to pay Tk 2000-2500 for irrigating one bigha of land by a shallow or power-run machine while a farmer under the project gets water supply paying Tk 80 only for a bigha of land. The project takes only Tk 480 for water supply in one acre of land for crop farming around the year, said an official of the project.

Executive Engineer at Dalia Operation and Maintenance Division Asafudoulla said the irrigation project helps the farmers to reduce the farming cost including fuel and fertiliser.

There was enough water in the barrage canals. The project initially set the target to irrigate 63 thousand hectares of land in the districts but it could irrigate some 44500 hectares of land as some parts of different canals had been damaged and filled with earth and wastage.

They can meet the target of the supplementary irrigation for the aman paddy if all the canals of the project remain steady.

Executive Engineer at Bangladesh Water Development Board of Rangpur, Ahsan Habib said the government has began implementing a programme to repair, renovate and expand the Teesta irrigation, rehabilitation and expansion project areas at the cost of Tk 1400.53 crore targeting to bring 1.05 lakh hectares of land under the irrigation facilities in the region. The work is expected to end in 2024.

The DAE has fixed a target of producing 18,07,916 tonnes of clean aman rice (27,11,874 tonnes of paddy) bringing some 6,15,685 hectares of land from five districts - Rangpur, Gaibandha, Kurigram, Lalmonirhat and Nilphamari in the region this season.