Farmers in the Barindh region are wary of the future of aman rice production, reports UNB.

Already a drought-like situation is prevailing in Rajshahi region, which along with a nearly cold weather may hit the aman production in the area.

Farmers badly needed a rain early in the month that did not come and this can affect 30 to 40 per cent of the aman yields, according to October field re-Sjrt by Novartis, a Life Sciences ompany.

It said the crop is now in a stage where grains are being formed but with the drought Krevailing, this may seriously amper the grain formation of paddy.

To cope with the situation, the irrigation pumps at the Barindh project were switched pn. but this could not help much as frequent load shedding and low voltage left the pumps inoperative for most of the time.

As a last resort, farmers are now using different types of hand operated pumps to irrigate their fields from ponds and other water bodies.

But this will have a far-reaching effect on the next crop — boro rice, farmers say.

"We are now using water from ponds to irrigate the aman crop." the Novartis report quoted Mohatab Haji of Kakonhat. Godagari, who cultivated aman rice on 100 bighas of land, as saying.

"But this water we preserve for boro cultivation. If we use It up for aman. then boro crops will get no water," said Haji.