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Scanty Rainfall Threatens Aman Cultivation

Supplementary irrigation, weedy field too costly for farmers

Quamrul Islam Rubaiyat, Thakurgaon
Farmers of Thakurgaon and Panchagarh districts are struggling to save their aman plants from drying as the monsoon this year saw a poor rainfall.
The farmers, who mainly depend on monsoon rain for aman cultivation, are worried about recovery of their production cost as the yield is likely to be hampered while supplementary irrigation adds to their cost.
Scanty rainfall also helped growth of dense weeds in the paddy fields, much to the concern of
farmers.
Most of the farmers of the districts transplanted aman seedlings on their fields smoothly as there was required rainfall in the initial stage of the crop cultivation.
But afterwards, the season saw scanty rainfall and consequently, the soil hardened and weeds developed fast in the crop lands in many areas.
Growth of shoots of the plants hampered due to the situation.
During visits to different villages of these districts, this correspondent saw the paddy plants drying and
getting yellowish.
Dense weeds were also seen in the fields.
Hekmat Ali, 48, a farmer of Boikanthapur village under Thakurgaon Sadar upazila, said he transplanted aman plants on three bighas (one bigha = 0.3306acre).
"Usually about Tk 6,000 is needed to cultivate aman on a bigha of land when the weather is favourable. But in absence of sufficient rainfall this season I have to irrigate my crop lands with diesel-run pumps. Besides, scanty rainfall helped to develop dense weeds on the lands. I have to spend Tk
2,500-Tk3,000 per bigha for the supplementary irrigation and weeding to save the plants.
"But the production is not likely to be more than 15 maunds in each bigha.
At present each maund of paddy is selling between Tk 450 to Tk 550 in the local markets. So it is very tough to get profit from aman cultivation," Hakmatsaid.
Shamsuzzoha, 55, a farmer of Sakoya village in Boda upazila, said he cultivated aman on seven bighas of land but about the plants on two bighas is getting damaged as he is unable to manage expenditure for
irrigation for the whole cultivated land.
This season, Thakurgaon and Panchagarh districts saw aman cultivation on 1,28,795 and 88,480 hectares of land respectively, the production target of the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) being exceeded in both districts.
But the production targets -- 3-lakh 39-thousand 388 tonnes and 2-lakh 27 thousand 85 tonnes of rice respectively, are uncertain due to the adverse weather condition.
DAE in Thakurgaon recorded only 127 mm rainfall in August this year while it was 535 mm in the same month last year.
The solvent farmers are irrigating their land by die-sel-run shallow machines to save the transplanted seedlings while poor and marginal farmers, failing to afford the high cost, are eagerly waiting for heavy rainfall.
In Thakurgaon, 10,080 shallow tube wells including diesel-run and electricityrun pumps and 910 deep tube wells of BMDA are being run for irrigation on aman fields.
In Panchagarh, about 5,500 shallow pumps including diesel and electricity-run pumps and 225 deep tube wells of BMDA are on for the purpose, said DAE and BMDA officials.
When contacted, Zahedul Islam, crop special-ist of Thakurgaon Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE), said, "After planting of seedlings the soil became hard due to shortage of rainfall. As a result weeds developed fast in some areas especially in high lands. Farmers are trying to tackle the adverse situation by watering the fields. If the weather improves within a short time production will not be hampered."