Sudden rain halts potato harvesting in Bogura; farmers fear damage

Potato farmers in 12 upazilas of Bogura are apprehensive about potential damage to their crops following unexpected rainfall in the district last night.

Several hours of rain till this morning from last night in almost every upazila in the district may incur losses to them, reports our local correspondent quoting the farmers.

The Bogura Met Office recorded 28 mm rain in the last 24 hours till 6:00 am this morning while only three mm of rain was recorded in neighbouring district Pabna.

According to the Agricultural Extension Department (DAE) office in Bogura, an average of 13 mm of rainfall was recorded in 12 upazilas from last night to 9:00am.

This afternoon, while visiting the potato fields in Sarai and Kite villages of Bogura's Kahaloo upazila, it was noticed that rainwater drenched the fields, dampening the potatoes left out for drying.

Ayub Pramanik,30, a farmer in Sarai village, said, "I wanted to harvest the potatoes in the next two days, but suddenly the land got waterlogged due to rain last night."

"Now I cannot harvest the potatoes until the water dries up. Moreover, due to the water seeping into the land, the potatoes can rot," he said.

Mozahar Uddin,50, another potato grower of Kite village, planted streak potato in 5 bigha land this year. He wanted to harvest potatoes after a few days.

Mozahar told The Daily Star that, "If the potatoes are harvested late, we get better yield. So, I was waiting. The sudden rain is a blow to me. The price of these wet potatoes will not be good. Moreover, the potatoes can no longer be stored at home. All my potato field is waterlogged."

According to the DAE, Bogura, potato has been cultivated in a total 55,260 hectares of land this year. Till last week only 45 percent of potatoes have been harvested.

Matlebur Rahman, deputy director of DAE in Bogura, told The Daily Star, "So far, about 50 percent of the potatoes harvested in Bogura till today."

Md Shahinul Islam, the meteorologist of the Bangladesh Meteorological Department, told The Daily Star that it had rained a little in some places in Rajshahi this morning. Apart from this, slight rainfall is likely in some places of Dhaka, Mymensingh, and Sylhet divisions today.