BSS, Rangpur :
The riverside and char people are happy now after achieving bumper output of various crops cultivated in the dried-up riverbeds and char lands on the Brahmaputra basin in Rangpur agriculture region this season.
According to the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) sources, the poor and landless char people, small and marginal farmers brought over 55,000 hectares of land this season under crop cultivation on the riverbeds and char lands.
Like in the previous years, they mostly cultivated vegetables, Boro rice, pumpkin, onion, garlic, maize, wheat, groundnut, ‘china’, ‘kawn’, pulses, ‘gunji till’, chili, tobacco, gourd, sweet potato, corn, pulses, mustard, melon and watermelon on these lands this season. Horticulture specialist of the DAE Khondker Md Mesbahul Islam said cultivation of crops on these lands has become possible due to drying-up and silting-up of the rivers following climate change impacts and lowering of the underground water level. “The farmers already completed harvest of the crops last week before beginning of the upcoming rainy season though some crops like jute in fewer low-lying char areas are still growing under the threat of early floods,” he added.
Agriculture and Environment Coordinator of RDRS Bangladesh Mamunur Rashid said the farmers have been cultivating crops on the dried up riverbeds and low-lying char areas due to continuous deposition of alluvial soil in recent decades.
“Though the farmers are getting bumper crop production, there is no alternative to reviving water flows in the rivers round the year for improving bio-diversity and ecology for long term betterment and checking environmental imbalance,” he added.
Char dwellers Samsuddoha, Abdul Hakim, Nurul Haque, Mofizar Rahman and many others of different char areas under Chilmari upazila on the river Brahmaputra said they achieved bumper crop production this year.
“We have already completed harvest of our cultivated Boro rice, mustard, wheat, chili, vegetables, pumpkin, sweet potato, ground nut, onion, garlic and other crops and got excellent yield this season,” said char farmer Aminur Rahman.
River-eroded people of Kolkond and Paschim Mohipur villages under Gangachara upazila Lokman Hakim, Abdur Razzaque and Nasima Khatun also got bumper production of various crops they cultivated on the Teesta riverbed this season.
Regional Additional Director of the DAE Md Shah Alam said, “Crop cultivation takes place on these lands improving livelihoods of riverside and char people with emergence of shoals following deposition of silts, drying-up and silting-up of the rivers.”
