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Flood threatens livelihood of farmers

Shykh Seraj
Continuous rainfall and rising water level in the upstream of Bangladesh are the main causes of increase in water at most of the rivers and other water bodies across the country at the moment. For the first time in 6 years, 36 districts of Bangladesh have been severely affected by flood. However, the nature of the flood is now different from others which had impacted us in the past.
As a consequence of the flood this year, many households and rural infrastructures are under water. Aus paddies have been ruined. The most affected was the Ropa Aman paddies. As I travelled through different parts of Bangladesh this year during the flood, all the farmers shared their terrible experiences with me, experiences of the flood affected regions.
"Flood water grasped my paddy land and ruined everything", said one farmer from Kurigram. "My paddies are gone. I'm wondering what we'll eat for survival", said another farmer from Motherganj, Jamalpur. "If the banks support me, I'd be able to sow again. I don't have any options left", said another hapless farmer from Sunamganj. These are the real scenes from the field. Their faces are portraits of real sorrow.
Kurigram farmers are the worst sufferers of the flood. Water is now over 38,000 hectares of Ropa Aman paddy lands in Kurigram. 30,000 hectares in
Gaibandha, 23,000 in Tangail, 20,000 in Jamalpur, 19,000 inSylhet, 12,000 in Sunamganj, 11,000 hectares in Bogra, 15,000 hectares in Sirajganj, 10,000 hectares in Netrokona are doomed under water. As a consequence of widespread impact, agrarian lands in Natore, Feni, Habiganj, Sherpur and Mymensingh have been under water for fifteen or twenty days. This has resulted in severe crop loss and many farmers have fallen behind their regular agricultural activity for at least two months.
Qurban Ali, a farmer from Singabari, Sirajganj shared with us what he lost. "I had paddies on 2.5 bighas of land and I lost all of them", said he. He eventually jumped into the water to show us the condition of his paddy plants. He fetched some ruined paddy plants to show us from under the water. I met another farmer in Sthalbari, Sirajganj, by the name of Joynal Abedin, who is sufferingthe same fate as others.
"Joynal bhai, what was being farmed in that land over there?", I asked. "There were pointed gourds, papaya, eggplants", he showed me.
"What have you lost?", I asked eagerly. "I lost paddies and many vegetables I was farming", replied he.
The world has advanced after the severe floods of 1988, 1998 or 2004-05 floods. Agriculture is also blessed with new technologies and more are on their way to empower the sector. However, we
are still behind in that specific sector. We're failing in case of taking preparation in advance and we haven't seen any great measures to tackle the risks posed by this natural disaster. We spoke to Senior Scientist of BRRI, Dr. Abdul Majid regarding submergence tolerant rice varieties.
“For how long can the submergence tolerant varieties can stay under water?
"Sixteen days." Abdul Majid added, if the water stays for seven to ten days, the plants have a great chance of survival. There is 97% of probability of survival in case the water stays for twelve days. When they kept the plants under water for sixteen days for experiment, they could save 69% of the paddies. Some of the plants were lacking in tolerance as they found. If one crop is affected by flood for a couple of times, their survival chance is very low, says the expert.
As per the information given by the scientists, these two submergence tolerant rice varieties have already reached farmlands in 2010.1 came to know that enough seeds were sent across the country. The question is how far the paddy
from those seeds could survive during this year's flood. "It depends on how fast the flood water went over the paddies. What was the soil erosion situation and the duration of the flood- seven, ten, sixteen days or beyond that? We must monitor these issues", replied Abdul Majid. Abdul Majid requested the farmers to clean the silt of their paddy plants as soon as the water moves away. After they clean them properly, they will have to wait for another seven days. As these plants were stressed for a long time, if farmers apply urea or potassium it will help the plants to rot fast. They have to wait for the first six or seven days. When the plant will achieve stability, farmers will have to clean the aquatic weeds from the land. If they apply 20 KGs of urea and 20 KGs of potassium after seven days when water moves away, the plants will get a new life. If water moves away in two weeks, farmers won't lose everything. This is based on what Abdul Majid suggested.
I also talked with scientist of the IRRI, Dr. Abdul Bari regarding this. He has been coordinating field level extension of these submergence tolerant varieties. "Under STRASA programme, we distributed submergence tolerant seeds to farmers", said Dr. Bari.
But the reality at farm level is very much different. In many regions, farmers don't even know about these varieties. Where the submergence tolerant varieties were experimented by BRRI while being submerged twice, 18% production came down. And 23% when it was submerged thrice. "If government can bring up a plan regarding withdrawal of BR 11 and local Swarna varieties from field and subsequently replace it with Sub 1, BRRI can assure that the newer variety will give more produce, even if there isn't any flood happening in a calendar year" said Dr. Abdul Majid.
BADC has enough Aman seeds of Nabi varieties, BR 23, Najir Shail, Bina Shail. Besides, at the northern region farmers cultivate Baran varieties of paddies. Short term Porangi variety is also good and farmers can start farming it. For times of emergency, such a now, government and related organizations should work together and play an effective role in tackling the situation and protect vulnerable farmers of Bangladesh.