Scanty rain hampers aman farming in Nilphamari

A vast tract of land in the district is still uncultivated in the ongoing aman season as farmers are facing difficulties in preparing the land before peak farming season due to scanty rainfall.

Aman cultivating starts from the first week of July and continues till late August. and farmers get maximum yield if the seedlings are transplanted during this period.

On average, around 400mm of rainfall during August is needed for good aman production. According to the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) in Nilphamari, there was only 52mm of rainfall this season, while it was 759mm last year.

DAE set a target to cultivate aman paddy in 1 lakh and 12,047 hectares of land this year to produce 3 lakh and 10,184 tonnes of rice. Cultivation of 70 percent of targeted land has already been completed while it is uncertain whether the rest can be brought under cultivation.

Seedlings in a number of seedbeds have become almost unusable as farmers couldn't transplant them in time.

Farmer Anwar Pasha of Bhanga Malli village in Sadar upazila said he cultivated his five-bighas of land by mid-August as he prepared the plots by extracting underground water. It needs Tk 1,500-Tk 2,000 for preparing one bigha of land with underground water.

GM Idris, deputy director of district DAE, said, “Farmers will overcome the situation by digging wells or using shallow machines or power pumps for arranging irrigation water.”