Boro harvest in Netrakona <i>haor</i> areas begins

Farmers thrash paddy with machine in Khaliajuri upazila of Netrakona district as boro harvesting has started in different haor (large water body) areas of the district.Photo: STAR

Farmers in haor (large water body) areas under Khaliajuri, Mohonganj and Madan upazilas of the district have started harvesting boro paddy.
According to farmers and agriculture officials, harvest of boro paddy in other upazilas of the district will start in the next 10 to 12 days.
In the low-lying areas, farmers are worried about flash flood and hailstorm that may damage their boro crop. Last year, boro on over 50 thousand hectares of land was damaged by flash flood.
Dhirash Nath Nag, additional director of District Agriculture Extension Department, said, “We are getting reports on good yield of boro in haor areas”. He also visited Khaliajuri areas on Saturday.
Deputy Director of Agriculture Extension Department Abdul Malek is expecting 6, 40,281 tonnes of boro paddy from 1, 63,230 hectares of land this year. But the farmers cultivated boro on 1,83,000 hectares of land in ten upazilas of the district.
Sources in the District Agriculture Extension Department said farmers cultivated hybrid boro on 28,148 hectares of land, high-yielding varieties on 1,44,056 hectares and local varieties on 1.016 hectares this year.
During harvest season, hundreds of labourers come to haor areas and other upazilas of the district from Aricha, Narayanganj, Dhaka, Pabna, Jamalpur and Sirajganj, farmers said.