Three days of heavy rain and upstream flood have submerged around 200 hectares of paddy field in Rowmari upazila of Kurigram, posing threat to this season’s harvest.
Worried about the paddy, farmers in the area said the constant heavy torrent has caused the upstream flooding in the hills in India, flooding the low-lying areas in Boraibari, Chuliarchar, Jhaubari, Barbanda,Kalochar, Ijlamari, Bokbanda, Khewarchar, Algarchar, Lalkura and several other villages in Rowmari, inundating fields of Boro paddy and seasonal vegetables.
“We cannot found any labourer to work in this condition, so we are working ourselves to reap what we can from the flooded fields,” said Gafur, a paddy farmer in Jhaubari.
“We were supposed to harvest paddy in hundreds of acres of these fields on both the banks of the Jinjiram River.
“Now they are under water. The harvest will be ruined if the floodwater doesn’t subside soon,” said Abdul Malek, another paddy farmer from Boraibari.
When contacted in this regard, Rowmari Agricultural Officer Md Azizul Haque said the paddy fields on both sides of Jinjiram, Dhoroni and Kalonodi Rivers, near the Bangladesh-India border, are completely submerged. “We have suggested the farmers to collect their harvest from the fields.”
Kurigram Water Development Board’s Executive Engineer Mahfuzur Rahman said the heavy rain caused the rivers to overflow and inundate the paddy fields on the riverbanks. “However, the situation is not yet as severe as a flood.”