Farming suffers due to lack of embankment

Thousands of farmers at two villages in Nazirpur upazila are suffering badly for lack of an embankment surrounding their croplands.

Farmers in the affected two villages said the canals, flowing beside their croplands, see a rise in the water level just before harvesting the Boro paddy every year.

Due to constant loss, many farmers at Penakhali and Chatar villages in the upazila are losing their interest in Boro cultivation.

A number of growers said as the farmlands remain under water almost all the year round and they cannot grow other crops, but Boro only.

When the water level decreases slightly during the winter, it creates a chance for local growers to cultivate Boro, their only crop.

“Lands here are very fertile as water hyacinths and other water plants produce natural fertiliser which helps us growing Boro paddy in great amounts,” farmer Shahidul Islam of Penakhali village said.

“We fell very frustrated when we see a rise in water level just before the Boro harvest every year,” he said, adding that sometimes we are compelled to harvest immature paddy.

“As there is no surrounding embankment, water enters our croplands easily,” said Nazrul Islam, another farmer of the village.

“Though we often count losses in Boro farming, we keep cultivating it as we do not have any alternative way of earning,” farmer Idris Ali of Chatar village said, adding that they also face labourer crisis in the harvesting period as workers are not interested working in deep water.

Nazirpur Upazila Agriculture Officer Digbijoy Hazra said around 13,250 hectares of land in the upazila have been brought under Boro cultivation this year.

While talking to this correspondent, Jagannath Biswas, assistant engineer of Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation (BADC) in Pirojpur, said they were aware of the situation at the two villages and will take necessary steps to construct an embankment along the cropland soon.