3,000 bighas of paddy land have been submerged under water due to early flooding in the haor.
According to the Agriculture Department, about 30% of the paddy fields have been damaged.
His 4 kani of rice land is submerged under water. If he had only two weeks, he could have brought home a golden harvest. But just before the rice harvest, everything was submerged in the untimely flood waters.
“The price of a maund of paddy harvested from underwater is 600 taka, and the laborer’s wage is 1500 taka. What can I do with the paddy harvested from underwater? So I look at the land,” lamented Narayan Das, a farmer from Sreepur village in Nasirnagar.
Nearly 3,000 bighas of paddy land in the haor area of Nasirnagar upazila of Brahmanbaria have been submerged in water due to the landslides coming down from the upstream. Farmers are now speechless after losing their only crop of the year.
In the Medir Haor area, it is seen that half-ripe golden rice is submerged under the water of the early monsoon. Many farmers are forced to hire workers to harvest the rice at high wages. Currently, the daily wage of the workers is 1200 to 1500 taka.
Meanwhile, the rice under water has started to rot, increasing the risk of damage.
Farmer Chakku Mia said that he had cultivated paddy on 20 kani of land. Of this, he was able to harvest only 5 kani of land, while the remaining 15 kani is still submerged under water.
Babul Mia, a farmer from the same area, said his 20 bighas of paddy land is under water. “Should I harvest the paddy? The wages of the workers are very high,” he said.
He alleged that no one from the agriculture department has inquired, nor have public representatives stood by. “There is no one to listen to the cries of the haor farmers,” he added.
In this regard, Dr. Mostafa Emran Hossain, Deputy Director of the Department of Agricultural Extension, Brahmanbaria, said that about 30 percent of the rice fields in the haor have been damaged by the upstream water. However, he expressed hope that the cultivation of new varieties of rice will not have a major impact on the overall production target.
This year, Boro rice has been cultivated on 111,770 hectares of land in the district.
On the other hand, Brahmanbaria Assistant Food Controller Md. Noor Ali said that the government will purchase 11,055 metric tons of paddy directly from farmers at a price of Tk 36 per kg this year, which will help the farmers to some extent.
According to the Agriculture Department, the district has set a target of producing 490,000 metric tons of paddy in the current season, with a market value of about Tk 1,764 crore.
However, the reality on the ground says otherwise – haor farmers are now just sighing as they look at their paddy fields submerged under water.