Only 11 percent flood-affected growers to get govt support
Only 12,000 out of 1,07,193 flood-affected farmers in the district are going to get government support for seeds and fertilisers. As a result, more than 95,000 affected growers will remain out of the coverage.
Of the 12000 flood-affected farmers, each of 4,000 farmers will get a package of five kilograms of seeds of mashkalai, 10 kg of DAP and five kg of MOP fertilisers while 8,000 others will get more than 500 gram of seeds of 13 kinds of vegetables, agriculture officials said.
Distributions of the seeds and fertilisers kicked off at the upazila parishad auditorium in Tangail Sadar from yesterday, the officials added.
Aman paddy saplings are also being provided to some more farmers in the flood-hit areas, they said.
According to the office of the District Relief and Rehabilitation Officer, floods hit total 849 villages under 95 unions and six municipalities in 11 upazilas out of total 12 upazilas in the district.
Especially growers in the areas beside the Jamuna, Dhalleswari, Louhajang, Jhenai and Banshi rivers have been badly affected by the floods.
According to the office of the deputy director of Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) in Tangail, different crops of 18,126 hectares of land were inundated with floodwater. Of them, crops of 13,292 hectares of land were fully damaged.
The flood damaged crops and vegetables like Aman paddy on 10,588 hectares, seedbeds of Ropa (transplanted) Aman on 1,359 hectares, Aus on 1,808 hectares, jute on 765 hectares, sugarcane on 65 hectares, banana on 45 hectares and lemon on 380 hectares of land.
As many as1,07,193 farmers in the areas have incurred Tk 141 crore loss due to the flood, said agriculture officers.
The prolonged flood has also crushed last strands of hope for many farmers in the district amid the Covid-19 pandemic, said several affected growers.
Agriculturist Ahsanul Bashar, deputy director (DD) of DAE in Tangail, told The Daily Star that the prolonged flood caused huge damage to crops this year.
However, the government is sincere enough to help the flood-affected farmers as per the ability, he said.
He further added that all the flood affected farmers are not getting the government support. Only the poor and worst-affected growers will get the support.
The seeds and fertilisers will be distributed among the worst-affected farmers as per lists prepared by the committees comprising the local union parishad (UP) chairmen and agriculture officials, he said.
Several farmers, however, alleged that the real poor and affected farmers hardly have got the little government support as the UP chairmen include the names of the farmers in the lists as per their choice.
Contacted, Mohammad Jinnah, chairman of worst-affected Kakua union parishad, said at least 2,000 farmers of the union incurred huge losses after flood caused damage to their crops.
"But we have got poor allocations for only 200 flood-hit farmers in the union," said the UP chairman.
On the other hand, several flood-affected sugarcane, banana and lemon growers in the areas said although they have incurred losses due to the recent prolonged floods, only the paddy farmers are getting the government support.
Asked about the matter, DD Ahsanul Bashar said they have plans to provide saplings to the flood affected lemon, banana and sugarcane farmers.
They have already sent a proposal to the higher authorities in this regard, said the DD.
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