Floods damage Tk 235 cr crops in Rangpur region

857

RANGPUR, Aug 25, 2019 (BSS) – The recent floods have damaged standing crops on 20,960 hectares of land causing production losses of 69,549 tonnes of crops worth Taka 235 crore in Rangpur agriculture region this season.

The Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) officials said over 3.66-lakh lakh farmers have been affected by floods in Rangpur, Gaibandha, Kurigram, Lalmonirhat and Nilphamari districts of the region.

Meanwhile, the DAE and agriculture related departments, organisations and institutions have taken steps like distribution of seed and newly prepared seedling of Transplanted Aman (T-Aman) rice among flood-hit farmers to assist them in recouping crop losses.

Deputy Director at the DAE’s regional office Agriculturist M Moniruzzaman said floods have caused production losses of 126.53 tonnes of T-Aman rice worth Taka 37-lakh on 43.75 hectares of land and seedling worth Taka 59.06 crore on 5,216 hectares of land.

The floods have caused production losses of 18,581 tonnes of vegetables worth Taka 69.50 crore on 27,094 hectares, 28,665 tonnes of Aush rice worth Taka 59.30 crore on 7.754 hectares and 9,188 tonnes of jute worth Taka 24.02 crore on 4,618 hectares of land.

Besides, floods have caused production losses of 4,392 tonnes of spicy crops worth Taka 21.96 crore on 488 hectares of land, 21.10 tonnes of betel leaf worth Taka 60.30-lakh on three hectares and 63 tonnes of ‘Tiil’ worth Taka 43-lakh on 43 hectares of land.

Talking to BSS today, Additional Director of DAE for Rangpur region Agriculturist Mohammad Ali said massive post-flood agri-rehabilitation programs have been taken as per government directives to assist flood-affected farmers of the region.

“We have already prepared 202 community seedbeds of T-Aman rice on one acre of land each in Kurigram (100 acres), Gaibandha (100 acres) and Lalmonirhat (two acres),” he said.

Distribution of prepared Aman rice seedling after three weeks of sowing seed has already begun among 12,241 flood-hit farmers for re-transplantation on their flood-affected croplands with one bigha of land each.

“The DAE, BADC and Bangladesh Rice Research Institute have prepared buffer seedbeds of late variety T-Aman rice on 19.50 hectares of land to distribute seedling among 1,181 flood-hit farmers for re-transplantation on one bigha of land each,” he said.

The farmers have prepared 280 floating Aman rice seedbeds in all five districts of Rangpur agriculture region with the DAE assistance for re-transplantation of seedling by 70 farmers on one bigha of land each.

“The DAE has distributed 4.20 tonnes of late ‘Ganjia’ variety of Aman rice seed among 700 flood-hit farmers of Kurigram and Gaibandha and they have already broadcasted those on their affected croplands with one bigha of land each,” he said.

Besides, farmers have also broadcasted 260 tonnes of the late ‘Ganjia’ variety of Aman rice seed of their own on around 4,300 bighas of their affected croplands in these two districts.

“The government through the DAE has also distributed 25.38 tonnes of ‘Mashkalai’ seed among 5,400 flood-affected farmers who are broadcasting those on one-bigha of land each to recoup the crop losses in the region,” Ali said.

The farmers have already brought over 5.37-lakh heaters of land under cultivation of T-Aman rice against the fixed farming target on 6.35-lakh hectares of land to produce 18.08-lakh tonnes of clean rice (27.13 tonnes of paddy) in the region this season.

“We hope that farmers would attain the fixed T-Aman rice cultivation target within the stipulated seedling transplantation period of August 31 though seedling transplantation of late variety of Aman rice will continue till September 15 next,” Ali added.