Waterlogging hampers Aman cultivation in Khulna

More than 1,000bighas of Aman field in Koyra upazila of Khulna have been severely damaged duo to water logging this season.

This has happened due to the lack of facility to drain out water from the Aman fields at Dakkhin Deyaramouja in the upazila,although there is a government canal adjacent to the fields.

Local people said waterlogging has been hampering the Aman cultivation at Deyara Beel and Lakshmikhola areas in the upazilafor the last 3/4 years.Many farmers from the arealeft their land abandoned this yearto avoid increasing losses.

Failing to recover their production costs,farmers from more than 400 familiesare losing their interest in Aman cultivation.Leaving the paddy at their own lands, they are now working as day labourers at other farmers’ fieldsfor livelihood.

Visiting Lakshmikhola and Deyarabeel areas, The Business Post correspondent saw that there was no paddy on almost one-third of lands. At some places paddy and plants were planted but they were not healthy and insects have massively destroyed the crops.

Kawsar Gazi, a local farmer who was spreading pesticides to kill the insects, said that he cultivated paddy in five bighas of land but production was not satisfactory due to water stagnation while insects are adding more to the owes. He is trying hard to recover his production cost from selling the paddy.

Other farmers like Soilumuddin Sana, Salam, Shahinur andJahidul also voiced the same. Their seedlings are getting destroyed for stagnation of rain and salted water. They planted seedlings after water receded but heavy rain spoiled them. Many farmers again planted seedlings which pushed the production costs to Tk 8,000 to Tk 9,000 for perbigha of land.

They said that farmers are not looking after the fields anymore as they will not be able to recover the harvesting cost this year, let alone the total production cost.

However, some farmers may get 6/7 maunds of paddy from per bigha of land, they said. They demanded proper management of water supply by developing the Madarbaria gate and opening the Berercanal.

Abdul Hai of West Deyara cultivated paddy on some leased and his own landsfor his family needs. “This year paddy production is not good. Like the last year, I have to go to Gopalganj this year also for cutting crops to put bread on the table,” he said.

ToiyeburRahman, a tea seller of the same village, said “We have four bighas of land which used to provide enough for my family needs round the year. But in the past 3/4 years, production was low. It is difficult to recover production costs by selling paddy. So this year I did not cultivate paddy.”

Milon of Deyara village has 10 bighas of land in LakshmikholaBeel area but he did not cultivate paddy as seedlings were destroyed and there was no way to drain out water.

“I cultivated 12 bighas of land in Deyarabeel but will not be able to recover my production costs,” he doubted.

Soiluddin Sana, a localday labourer,who has two bighas of land in Lakshmikhola Beel has left the land abandoned this year as he failed to recover production costs for the last few years. “It feels horrible when even the production cost is not recovered after paddy cultivation,” he said.

RurulKuddus, a local farmer, said he cultivated five bighas of land. But there is no way for water receding without Berercanal through Hogla gate.Water cannot get through the Berercanal as the government has leased it.

He demanded establishment of a sluice gate atHogla and opening the Berercanal for farmers.

Moharajpurunion’sDeyara ward UP member Abdul Mannan said many poor families manage food by cultivating Beel adjacent to Berercanal, but water receding from the beel was hindered as the government leased the Berercanal. “Finally, I settled the matter and took measures to recede water from the swamp after discussing with lessees for farmers’ interest. But it failed to bring forth any good result,” he said.

He also sought withdrawal of the lease of the Berercanal for the sake of the interest of hundreds of farmers of the locality.

Not only Lakshmikholaor Deyaraareas, most of the farmers of Koyraupazilaare worried about the Aman production but their problem is not waterlogging. Their cultivation was hampered due to lack of water caused by low rainfall. The seedbed was destroyed and alternative water supply by irrigation spiked the production costs.They have planted crops lately.Itwill still take one to one and a half months to harvest. Although the crops are good, they are worried about the attack of various insects. Paddy of only 3/4 percent of the farmers is fit to harvest.

According to district Department of Agricultural Extension,Aman was cultivated on around 15,010 hectares of land in this season in Koyraupazila. Last year, around 33,042.36 tonnes of rice was produced after cultivating Amanpaddies on 14,720 hectares of land.

Deputy Assistant Agricultural officer of Moharajpur Union SM FarukHossain said the main problem of Lakhshmikhola and DeyaraBeel is water stagnation which will be resolved ifBerercanal is opened for general people.

Moharajpurunion Chairman Abdullah Al Mahmud said Bagali union’s chairman has blocked their culvert after salted water entered to the paddy fields.

“Waterlogging will be resolved by developing the gate of Koyra-Chad Ali road in Madarbaria village and opening the Berercanal. We are trying our best,” he said.

Additional Agricultural Officer of Koyraupazial Ashim Kumar Das said that he recently received news of attack of several insects including current insect. We are advising the farmers, holding meeting with them and distributing leaflets to reduce insect infections.

He, however, does not know anything about water logging damaging the Aman lands of the upazila, he added.