Home ›› 02 May 2020 ›› World Biz
Farmers in Khulna, who faced trouble over harvesting Boro crops due to labour crisis amid coronavirus shutdown, now have suffered yet another blow due to recent rains as that might damage the crop now lying in the field after it was cut down.
They now fear that their crop will get damaged in the field well before it is taken home safely if the rain continues.
Khulna recorded 175mm of rain from April 24 to May 1, said Amidul Azad, an assistant meteorologist at Khulna Met office.
According to farmers, torrential rain for four days till Friday damaged paddy as well as straw (used as fodder) that may trigger a serious fodder crisis.
They said after cutting down paddy they usually keep it in the field for drying and most farmers could not take it home for that reason.
Due to heavy rains in the last 4-5 days, most paddy fields, including those in Dumuria upazila, known as crops storage, got waterlogged, leaving the farmers worried.
Besides, most beels in the upazila, including Singair (Singer Beel), Baniakhali Beel, Khalshir Beel, Bamandia Beel and Gonali Beel have been flooded, said farmers of the upazila.
Salahuddin, a farmer of Tipna village in the upazila said, “I planted boro paddy on 1.20 acres of land spending Tk 35,000. The yield was also good. On Thursday, I cut down the paddy of the whole land along with 8-10 labourers and kept it in the land for getting dried up. But rainwater which got accumulated in my land is damaging my paddy.“
Two other farmers, Md Sajjad Kabir and Md Khanjahan Ali, said they hired labourers at higher wages and if they cannot take paddy to their homes from the field timely it may create a food crisis round the year.
Mosaddek Hossain, an agriculture officer of Dumuria upazila, said boro paddy was cultivated on 21,205 hectares of land in the upazila and the production target was set at 1,27,230 metric tonnes. But farmers are now fearing huge losses for rain.
Pankaj Kanti Majumdar, deputy director of Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE), Khulna, said 57,540 acres of land were brought under cultivation in Khulna this season with a production target of 2.50 lakh metric tonnes of paddy.
(Source: UNB)
