Floods inflict crop loss of Tk 141cr
Farmers in Tangail are facing financial doom, as the recent flood inflicted damage on crop fields in 11 out of total 12 upazilas in the district.
Thousands of hectares of crops fields in the district were inundated during the flood that began on July 10, which damaged standing paddy, seed beds of paddy and different kinds of vegetables. The water started receding from July 21.
At a time when farmers were not receiving good prices for their boro paddy, they were hopeful that the current aman would help improve their situation. But the flood washed away their hopes.
Shariful Islam, sub-assistant agriculture officer at Department of Agriculture Extension in Tangail, said there were different crops and vegetables being grown on 42,537 hectares of land.
Of these lands, almost 40 percent or 16,705 hectares were inundated.
There were some 817 hectares of transplanted aman, 11,515 hectares of broadcast aman, 1,445 hectares of aush, 1,088 hectares of seed beds of transplanted aman, 1,795 hectares of vegetables and 45 hectares of banana on these inundated lands, he said.
Crops on 13,571 hectares of lands were fully damaged while 3,134 hectares were partially damaged , he said.
Of the fully damaged crops fields, there was transplanted aman on 490 hectares, broadcast aman on 9,212 hectares, aush on 1,156 hectares, seed beds of transplanted aman on 1,088 hectares, vegetables on 1,615 hectares and banana on 10 hectares.
The district DAE estimated crop damage at Tk 141.25 crore (141 crores 25 lakhs), he said.
A total of 157,811 farmer families were affected and faced loses due to the flood, he added.
Md Ashraf Hossain, a farmer of Aloa Bhabani village in Tangail Sadar upazila, said he cultivated transplanted aman paddy on 12 bighas of land, 11 bighas of which were damaged by the flood
“The flood has doomed my all hopes. Now I do not know how can I make up for this loss. How can I bear my family’s expenses?” the farmer asked hopelessly.
Contacted, Agriculturist Abdur Razzak, deputy director of DAE in Tangail, said the local farmers had cultivated different vegetables in addition to the transplanted and broadcast aman paddy, aush paddy and jute this season.
But the recent flood damaged vast areas of crop fields, he added.
“We have made a list of affected farmers and sent it to the agriculture ministry. They will receive support as per the ministry’s decision.”
“We are now preparing aman seed beds on 50 acres of land, so that we rush the saplings to the affected farmers just as the flood waters recede from the fields,” he said.
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