"We have already started preparing seedbeds on 500 acres of land under a Tk 1.40 crore programme so that we can provide the farmers with aman seedlings by September 15," he said while speaking at a press briefing at the conference room of Press Information Department (PID).

According the latest statistics of the agriculture ministry, around 27 percent of crops and vegetables on 7,63,167 hectares of land were damaged by the floods.

He said agricultural rehabilitation is the first priority now and the administration in the districts has been asked to make a priority list of the affected farmers owning small land.

"Once the floodwater completely recedes, we can assess the total amount of crops damaged and formulate a comprehensive plan for rehabilitating the farmers," CS Karim said, adding that the Ministry of Finance has already allocated Tk 30 crore for the programme.

"The farmers, however, will not be given any cash," he said, adding that the upazila and union agriculture rehabilitation committees will implement the programme under the overall supervision of the district rehabilitation committees.

He said the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) would monitor the programme centrally. The farmers in the flood-affected areas have already started their preparation for future crops without depending on the government, he added.

"It is a huge shift of mindset of our people. They are now more focussed on structural rehabilitation rather than relief and so on," he said sharing his experience from recent visits to a number of northern flood-affected districts.

Replying to a query, the agriculture adviser said they cannot guarantee that their programme will be 100 percent successful. "We hope that we can implement it successfully," he said.

The government sensitised the farmers beforehand about the flood and there was no delay in any rescue or relief operations, he claimed. The NGOs, business bodies and voluntary organisations were well incorporated in the district rehabilitation committees, he noted.

Agriculture Secretary Mohammad Abdul Aziz said, "Apart from the government initiative of growing aman seedlings on 500 acres of land, we have asked each upazila [upazila agriculture extension department] to motivate the farmers to grow seedlings on at least 10 acres of land."

This will surely help a lot in supplying aman seeds, he said, adding that seedlings on one acre could be transplanted in 20 acres. The farmers who have up to 2.5 acres of land will be given seeds free of cost for one bigha of land, Abdul Aziz added.

He said 48 percent of aman seedlings, 17 percent of aus, 41 percent of vegetables, 20 percent of seedbeds, 25 percent of planted aman and 36 percent jute were damaged in the flooding.

Fish worth Tk 202 crore was washed away in 48 districts in about 32,620 tonnes of fish and 583 tonnes of prawn. Livestock worth Tk 15 crore was destroyed in the floods.

A programme of Tk 36.33 crore has been prepared to rehabilitate farmers with small fish farms.

Food and Disaster Management Secretary Dhiraj Malakar and other officials were present at the press briefing.