BSS :
The recent flood has damaged standing crops on 4,472 hectares of land causing production losses of 25,461 tonnes of various crops worth Taka 49.94 this season in Rangpur agriculture region.
“The floods affected 1,48,094 farmers of three districts by damaging the standing crops in the region,” Agriculturist Bidhu Bhusan Ray, Additional Director of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), Rangpur region, told BSS on Wednesday.
The flood-affected districts are Gaibandha, Kurigram and Lalmonirhat in the region, while no crop damage was reported from Rangpur and Nilphamari districts.
The flood damaged standing crops including Aman rice seedbeds, Transplanted Aman rice and different varieties of vegetables.
The flood has damaged Aman rice seedbeds on 67 hectares of land causing losses to seedlings worth Taka 70.35 lakh and affecting 28,694 farmers in these districts.
The deluge has damaged Transplanted Aman rice on 4,324 hectares of land causing a production loss of 11,761 tonnes of clean rice (17,641 tonnes of paddy) worth Taka 46.30 crore and affecting 1,14,565 farmers.
“Besides, the flood has caused production losses of 970 tonnes of vegetables worth Taka 1.94 crore on 81 hectares of land affecting 4,835 farmers in these three flood-hit northern districts,” Ray said.
Officials of all agriculture related departments, organisations and institutions and some NGOs have visited the flood-affected areas and suggested the flood-affected farmers ways to tackle the situation.
The flood-affected farmers are transplanting late varieties of Aman rice seedlings anew at fewer places and taking preparation for cultivation of substitute crops on the flood-affected croplands.
“We have already sent the information of flood-hit farmers to the government and are expecting to get allocations to assist them in recouping little crop losses they incurred during the recent flood,” Ray added.
Besides, flood-affected farmers are cultivating late ‘Ganjia’ variety of Aman rice using their own seeds and will cultivate early varieties of vegetables, ‘Mashkalai’, maize and other crops on their affected croplands.
Talking to BSS, farmers Sultan Mahmud of village Char Korai Barishal and Saidar Rahman of Char Boraibari village of Kurigram said the recent flood submerged their Aman rice crop on 40 decimals and 210 decimals of land respectively.
